FIRE AT CINEMA

Hokitika Guardian, 13 March 1929, Page 8

FIRE AT CINEMA

OPERATOR'S DASH TO REMOVE FILMS. BRIGHTON. January 20. While 1 ,11a) people were watching • love film Inst night at' the Regent Picture Theatre, in Queen’s-road. Brighton—one of the biggest on the Smith Coast- they suddenly saw the red glare of flames behind the moving figures on the screen. A number of them realised that a fire must have broken out on the stage hut they at once rose and made their way quietly’towards the exits. A few moments later an official walked on to the stage and told the audience that it would be wise for then, to leave the building immediately although there was no immediate dangor..

ORCHESTRA CARRIES ON. By this time the smoke and flames of the fire, which had broken out in a dressing-room close to the stage, were visible to everybody in the audience, but they kept perfectly calm and the people filed out as' if the entertainment had come to its normal end. Their coolness was encouraged Ip the orchestra, which, although so neui the fire, continued to play lively mush until the piaee was empty. Meanwhile -100 men and women were dancing in the ball-room above tin cinema, while some 209 others were seated at the tables in the two restaurants in the building.

The dancers were astonished when tlie manager suddenly stopped the band and asked them to leave tin building, but their calmness equalled that of the people in the cinema. In one of the restaurants, the Ship Cafe, a woman dashed into the crowded room shouting “The place is on fire!” but even that failed to alanc the diners.

OPERATORS BRAVERY. Mr Arthur Steele, one of the operators, protected by only a wet cloth ove> his face dashed through choking cloud of smako to the operating box and removed thousands of feet of film. As soon as the fire broke out in the cinema, the manager, Air R. A. H Ainsworth brought a hose to bear on the flames, sending an assistant B attend to the audience. The alarm had then been given, and the entire Brighton brigade with five fire engines was immediately on flu scene. Even then the flames had gained a strong hold on the back of tin stage, and for an hour the firemen were fighting strenously to proven’ the blaze from involving the whole building. Early this morning they had mastered the outbreak, which as far as could be seen had been confined to the stage, although parts of the auditorium were under several inches of water.

Many members of the cinema audience, the dancers and the diners, remained outside to watch the brigade at work, and soon there was a crowd requiring all the available police to con trol it.