The two theater employees told the State Police Fire Investigator that when they
first discovered the fire they noticed that the sprayed-on fire proofing had been knocked off
the underside of the stage floor bar joists and support steel. The fire proofing was hanging
on the wire mesh used to hold the coating to the overhead. The investigation revealed that
the construction company's removal of the stage floor covering down to the corrugated
decking involved striking the floor hard enough to knock off the sprayed-on protection,
exposing the structural steel and bar-joists in the storage area.
Another contributing factor to the fire spread in the below-stage storage area was
on-going construction to the mezzanine rooms. Some walls were being changed and
doorway cut-throughs were being added, but fire doors were not yet installed. This allowed
fire to pass freely through these openings.
The fire spread vertically from the storage area to the stage, causing the steel to lose
its tensile strength. Temperatures of 1000° F can cause buckling and temperatures of 1500°
F can cause steel to lose strength and collapse3. When the heat and hot gases reached the
stage ceiling they extended horizontally into the auditorium, causing the roof to fail all the
way to the lobby fire wall. The fire also extended horizontally from the stage to the
elevated hallway, causing the structural steel to fail and buckle in the prop assembly and
prop maintenance buildings.
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