FIRES IN CINEMA THEATRES

Hokitika Guardian, 7 January 1930, Page 6

FIRES IN CINEMA THEATRES

reassuring statement. MINISTER. ON DOMINION PRECAUTIONS. WELLINGTON, January 4. The recent picture theatre disaster, at Paisley, Scotland, in which seventy children were killed in a panic resulting from a lire in the projection room, was referred to to-day by the Minister of Internal Affars (the Hon. P. A. de la Perrelle). The Minister was asked to state the conditions in New Zealand theatres, and his reply was of a nature reassuring. to the general public. Mr de la Perelle pointed out that the Cinematograph Films Act, 1928 contains provisions for ensuring public safety in picture theatres and said that the regulation under the Act were being generally observed in picture theatres in New Zealand. The regulation Required that the projection.room in which the film was screening should be of fire-resisting construction and provided with flues,to carry away flame and smoke so that even if all the film in the projection room were ignited there would be no serious danger of the theatre catching fire. Fjre extinguishers were required to be placed alongside the machines for use in emergeny, but the film not actually being screened must be kept in a fireproof metal box. In addition to this, the openings in the theatre wall through which the screening took place were required to be fitted witli fireproof drop-shutters which were arranged to work automatically in the event of fire, preventing more than a minimum amount of smoke reaching the auditorium.

SAFEGUARDS INSISTED ON. “It is desirable,” continued Mr de la Perrelle, “that the public should be assured that there is no danger to the audience in the event of fire in the projection room. In the use of highly inflammable material such as cinematograph film, which is exposed to the heat of the electric arc, a certain number of fires are inevitable, but the safeguards insisted on both by Government regulations and by the theatre proprietors themselves, practically exclude the risk of serious fire. On the average about a dozen such fires occur each year, and in most case the audience is not aware of what has happened and the fire is out before the fire brigade can reach the theatre. The principal danger in theatre fires arises not from the fire itself but from the panic arising from the smoke which is given off liberally by burning film. lam therefore askthe Press to publish this reassuring statement.” FUMES) FROM BURNING FILM. The Minister was asked whether the fumes from the burning film in a projection room would be sufficient to cause asphyxia, as in the case of the recent hospital fire in Cleveland. The Minister replied that the quantity of film involved in the Cleveland disaster was between three and four tons, whereas the weight of an avergae theatre programme was 501 b to 701 b. The special vents provided in the projection room for the escape of gases made it impossible for sufficient gas to escape to the auditorium to affect the audience. Operators had occasionally been affected while fighting these fires but there was no case on record of the gas . affecting the theatre audience. Mr de la Perrelle added that the Department bad had constructed a model projeortioUi room for the purpose of demonstrations with fire extinguishers ancl arrangements had been made to bold a public demonstration during the present month, while the motion picture exhibitors’ conference was in session in Wellington, so as to enable the fire and insurance authorities and the trade generally to see the effect of burning film in a projection room.