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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » Check your electrical wiring! (Page 1)

 
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2   
Author Topic: Check your electrical wiring!
Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 02-17-2002 12:19 PM      Profile for Jerry Chase   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
From the Saturday evening news report on WCAX TV in Vermont:

Maybe you can't cry FIRE in a crowded movie theater, but that's only if there's no fire. South Burlington firefighters were called to Cinema Nine off Shelburne Road this afternoon -- after a blaze broke out in the lobby. Everyone was evacuated without injury after an apparent short circuit at the concession counter. ((Susie Cain/Movie Patron: "The girl served me my popcorn and all of a sudden I looked and I said, 'Your popcorn machine's on fire!' And there was all kinds of fire coming up from under the popcorn maker. And then within two minutes whe whgole popcorn machine was on fire and within another two minutes the bags on top of the machine started catching on fire. By that time the girl was freaking out.... Next thing you know, there
was like total smoke .... I mean it was unbelievable, but I walked out with the popcorn.")) The customers also walked out with a raincheck to come back another day. For now, Cinema Nine is closed."

Closing for a Saturday can hurt!

Taking a wild guess, a cracked plastic hose from the oil pump could spray oil over electrical wiring. If the wiring was frayed or damaged, things could get hot.

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

- posted 02-17-2002 06:02 PM      Profile for David Stambaugh   Author's Homepage   Email David Stambaugh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
A friend of mine was asst. mgr. at Act III's West 11th Movieland 6 in Eugene back around 1990. He told me they had a fire in one of the popcorn makers at around 8PM on a Saturday night. The place was packed at the time. Alarms went off, fire & police responded, and staff was forced to evacuate all 6 auditoriums even though there was no danger to anyone by that time. Rainchecks were offered to everyone. Costly.

------------------
- dave
Look at this! His chin strap has been cut!

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 02-17-2002 07:15 PM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
A popper caught fire here in Salt Lake City at Jordon Comons last year. It screwed up the day for everyone, more so for the patrons. Luckily it happened before opening but management had the audacity to hold everyone in line till the mess was mopped up(it was a way bigger job than that!). Then they let everyone in line in(including us) only to find that the film they came to see had already started, in my case, African Queen, it was even running in the wrong aspect ratio! I've haven't been back there again nor do I intend to go back.
All in all that incident was very poorly managed by some very poorly trained management!
Mark @ Home


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Richard Fowler
Film God

Posts: 2392
From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
Registered: Jun 2001

- posted 02-18-2002 12:45 AM      Profile for Richard Fowler   Email Richard Fowler   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Jordans.....reminds me of my old high school with a food court built in the middle..
Richard Fowler
TVP-Theatre & Video Products Inc. www.tvpmiami.com

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Mathew Molloy
Master Film Handler

Posts: 357
From: The Santa Cruz Mountains
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 02-18-2002 04:00 AM      Profile for Mathew Molloy   Email Mathew Molloy   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Speaking of checking the wiring...

We're taking over a Mann Theatre here and last week we were hanging some aluminum flex and bumped a light socket. Sparks flew everywhere, burnt a hole in the socket, etc. We found out the fixture had been wired in reverse with the outside ring being hot!

I can only assume it's the same people who bypassed all the failsafes on the Norelco AAII and the Xetron lamphouse. I'll hazard a bet it's the same who wired the speakers up with no less than three types of wire to make it to the booth.

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Don Sneed
Master Film Handler

Posts: 451
From: Texas City, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

- posted 02-18-2002 04:20 AM      Profile for Don Sneed   Author's Homepage   Email Don Sneed   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I once worked as a projectionist at a theatre in Galveston Texas when someone called in a bomb threat back in 1980....at the dumpster police found a small case, after x-rays of the case, police found wires...the three screen cinema was evacuated with packed houses...after two hours, the case was a abandon 8mm movie projector !!

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Owen Shave
Film Handler

Posts: 34
From: Manchester, UK
Registered: Feb 2002

- posted 02-18-2002 08:48 AM      Profile for Owen Shave   Email Owen Shave   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
There is a Safety video that goes around the UCI cinemas here in the UK of a fire at the East Kilbride UCI. I've never seen it but apparently the popcorn machine goes up in flames and the CCTV catches the Concessionists serving for about 5 minutes afterwards with the flames licking at their heels! now i'm dedicated to increasing the revenue per head, but come on!
also two weeks ago some kind patrons of ours decided to set fire to some seats with liquid propellant. Luckily one of the ushers had a decent bit of common and was able to extinguish it with the in-screen fire extinguisher. Pull-aim-squeeze-sweep training is *sooo* valuable. A special thanks go out to the fire brigade who turn up afterwards, hack the seats apart with an axe to check it is completely extinguished and leave. I was reminded of the scene in Ghostbusters when they destroy the ballroom in that hotel just to get Slimer.
Its going to be an interesting health and safety committee meeting this month, I can tell...

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Sean McKinnon
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1712
From: Peabody Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000

- posted 02-19-2002 02:54 AM      Profile for Sean McKinnon   Author's Homepage   Email Sean McKinnon   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I had a Strong Switching power supply go up in flames on me at one theatre because the techs did not tighten the wiring properly. Also had to evacuate my 20 opening night of LOTR becuase the fire alarms went off. It amazes me how poeple dont understand the importance of getting out when the alarms go off. I show a video at my theatre of a soccer (football) stadium in england that caught on fire, scary stuff.

------------------
--Sean McKinnon
Manager
Loews Cineplex Entertainment
Liberty Tree Mall 20
Danvers, Mass
www.enjoytheshow.com

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

- posted 02-19-2002 09:45 AM      Profile for John Pytlak   Author's Homepage   Email John Pytlak   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
How many more would have survived the WTC disaster if everyone able had immediately started to evacuate and get well clear of danger after the first tower was hit? I recall some news reports said people in the second tower were being told to stay at their desks, since their tower was "safe".

Last summer my family stood outside a Boston hotel at 3:00 am after a false alarm. Less than half the people in the hotel took the alarm seriously enough to evacuate, many looking out the windows at the "fools" standing in the parking lot in their robes as the alarms blared and fire trucks drove up. Now I know we did the right thing.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 585-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 585-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion


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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

- posted 02-19-2002 04:45 PM      Profile for John Walsh   Email John Walsh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I had a weird thing happen. I was wiring remote control panels that required me to walk back and forth between two booths, using an auditourium as a shortcut. I went through that auditourium 5-6 times over the course of about 3 hours. The 6th time I went through, one of the seats were on fire, and the two on each side were half engulfed.

I'm sure there was no one else in the building, so I can only surmise someone had left a cigarette in the seat where it smoldered for hours until flaming up.

It also turn out that the flame-retardant stuff they apply to seats had worn off. We didn't know that these seats must be treated once every few years (they are Haywood-Wakefields.)

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 02-20-2002 11:07 PM      Profile for Paul G. Thompson   Email Paul G. Thompson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Over the years, we lost two popcorn machines due to fires. None of those were electrical fires. They were oil fires due to improper operating procedures.

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

- posted 11-02-2003 05:44 PM      Profile for David Stambaugh   Author's Homepage   Email David Stambaugh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Cinemark Movies 12 in Springfield OR had a popcorn machine go up in flames today, around 1PM. I happened to arrive just after they had put out the flames. The popcorn machine looked like a total loss, and everything within about 15 feet of the popper was a mess -- there was white CO2 powder everywhere. (Or whatever is in a typical fire extinguisher). The worst part was the odor -- it smelled awful anywhere in the mall within 50 yards of the theatre lobby. All 12 shows had to be evacuated and passes were being handed out. Oddly, it took the fire dept. a LONG time to respond...

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Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

- posted 11-02-2003 09:18 PM      Profile for Evans A Criswell   Author's Homepage   Email Evans A Criswell   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
It's interesting that this topic got bumped to the top today. Around 10:30 this morning, I heard fire trucks going down my street. About 6 houses down, I saw a lot of smoke. I walked down and saw lots of smoke coming out of the roof of that house. It took the fire department 30 to 40 minutes to get the fire out and it burned about a 4-foot diameter hole in the roof. Usually, house fires that do significant damage make the news here. None of the 3 TV stations had a story about it on their web sites. Of course, this was on a Sunday, so most TV stations aren't in news-seeking modes on the weekend.

Lots of the houses in my neighborhood were built in the early 1960s. Mine was built in 1962 and when we've done wiring work, we've found hideously bad wiring work left behind by people that did a half-assed job, took the money and ran. I wonder how many house fires are caused by bad wiring that people have no idea is there.

Do companies that do commercial wiring, such as for theatres, typically do shoody work in a hurry?

Evans

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

- posted 11-02-2003 09:48 PM      Profile for John Pytlak   Author's Homepage   Email John Pytlak   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Isn't the 1960's the era when lots of aluminum wiring was being used for residential wiring? Unless you used the proper AL-CU connectors and anti-corrosion paste, the oxide formed would eventually cause enough resistance to heat the connection, resulting in eventual failure or fire. [Eek!]

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Bill Enos
Film God

Posts: 2081
From: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

- posted 11-03-2003 12:57 AM      Profile for Bill Enos   Email Bill Enos   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
A co-worker about 15 years ago bought a house built with early aluminum wire and fittings. He retightened all the fittings etc. twice a year for several years until he found one that had gotten hot enough to melt a little. He turned the power off and lived in a motel until a contractor pulled it all out and replaced it with copper.

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