Theatre Safety

By the time of the commencement of the Edwardian era, fire had long been the major enemy of theatres around the globe. Theatres themselves were commonly constructed with widespread use of flammable materials, and flame based lighting systems based provided a high risk of combustion. Consequently, throughout history there had been numerous fatal conflagrations which had originated on stage, and many theatres had been razed to the ground, often more than once.

The need for far reaching measures to prevent such occurences could therefore be amply demonstrated by a long history of major fire disasters which had occured around the globe with great loss of life:

• 1811 USA - A theatre fire at a packed gala performance in Richmond, Virginia, destroyed the building completely at a cost of seventy-five lives - including that of the State Governor, George William Smith.
• 1843 Germany - The Grand Ducal Theatre in Carlsruhe was burned down during a performance with a loss of around one hundred lives.
• 1876 USA - A fire at Conway's Theatre in Brooklyn cost two hundred and ninety four lives. Seventy-seven of the victims were never identified and were buried in a mass circular grave in Greenwood Cemetery near the city.
• 1881 Austria - A fire at The Ring Theatre in Vienna claimed five hundred and eighty confirmed dead and many more missing.
• 1887 France - A fire at the Opera Comique in Paris on May 25th cost around two hundred lives.
• 1887 England - A fire at the Theatre Royal, Exeter on September 4th, claimed one hundred and fifty lives. The blaze broke out on the stage during the fourth act of a production of "Romany Rye". Panic broke out as the audience dashed for the exits whilst the theatre quickly filled with blinding smoke. Most of the victims died on the stairs leading from the gallery, some escaped by jumping from the windows into the street below. Henry Irving sent a donation of a hundred pounds towards a fund for the relatives of the victims. Inadequate ventilation was found to have contributed to the cause of the fire.
• 1887 USA - The Exeter Theatre in New York (USA) burned downed with a loss of seventy-fives lives. By a strange coincidence, this conflagration occured on September 5th, only one day after the fire at Exeter in England.
• 1888 Spain - A gas explosion at the theatre at Oporto on 21st March was the cause of a fire which totally destroyed the building with the loss of at least 80 lives. It was said that many of those that perished were crushed, clubbed or even stabbed in the rush to escape.
• 1897 China - A fire at the Quanton Theatre in Peiping in February resulted in around two hundred and thirty deaths.
• 1897 France - A fire at a Charity Bazaar held in a theatre in Paris on May 3rd cost one hundred and twenty-four lives with over two hundred injured. An investigation reported that none of the exits had been indicated and untreated velaria (canvas awnings) had covered the whole of the underside of the roof, contributing to the spread of the fire.

The above list includes only those theatres that were destroyed during occupation with attendant widespread loss of life. Many more theatres around the world were destroyed during this period whilst not occupied by the public.

The 'Reform Movement' of the Edwardian period naturally caused the question of protection from fire in theatres to be closely scrutinised. As a result, great headway was made in the development of protective measures against the rise and spread of fire in theatres.

In 1880, Captain Shaw of the London Fire Brigade launched a massive survey of London theatres in an attempt to curtail the number of fatal theatre fires which had previously plagued the capital. As a result, amongst other innovations, the first system of street alarm posts was introduced. Even so, a fire at the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square two years later almost claimed the life of an amateur fireman under a collapsing wall.

Around the turn of the century the London County Council instructed its Theaters and Music Halls Committee to prepare a report on what security was afforded by the existing law to protect the public against fire and panic in similar gatherings. Dismayed at being informed that its powers were in fact very limited, the Council then sought legislation to license any establishments to which the public were admitted.

One important innovation to arise from these and similar studies elsewhere in the World was the widespread introduction of carefully made and easily worked fire-resisting curtains. On the Continent metal curtains were favoured, but in England a double asbestos curtain was more common. The London County Council preferred a steel framing with asbestos wire-woven cloth on both faces, the intervening space being well packed filled with slag wool. Such curtains were somewhat heavy and required careful counter-weighting to operate easily, but if well made and fitted represented a massive step forward in theatre safety as they held back any fire arising back-stage (where most fires began) from reaching the auditorium, and thus gained time for the audience to evacuate the building. They were not infallible however, as was soon to be demonstrated by events across the Atlantic.

• 1903 USA - A fire in December at the newly opened six storey Iroquois Theatre in Chicago claimed six hundred and two lives. The theatre was filled to a capaciy 1900 for the matinee performance of the musical comedy "Mr. Bluebeard", starring comedian Eddie Foy. The fire started among the scenery suspended above the stage when a piece of canvas brushed against a hot arc light. The on-duty fireman was only equipped with two tubes of dry powder which was completely ineffective to halt the fire which spread rapidly. Eddie Foy attempted to reassure the audience then called for the asbestos curtain to be lowered which would have prevented (or at least delayed) the spread of the fire into the auditorium. The curtain snagged on a projecting light fixture and could not be lowered, and the theatres fate was then sealed when the panicked players fled the theatre through the Stage Door - letting in a blast of fresh air which blew the flames under and beyond the stuck curtain. Chaos descended as the raced for the twenty-seven exits, only to many of them locked, or operated by a mechanism with which they were unfamiliar. Some opened inwards which was impossible against the crush of bodies against them. Those patrons in the balconies suffered worst, many died leaping to the main floor of the auditorium to escape the blaze, others leaped from a fire escape cut off by a fire below and died on the hard pavement. Ironically, on its opening the theatre had been advertised as 'absolutely fireproof' - the reality was that 'complimentary' tickets had motivated city inspectors to ignore the fire code and let the theater open. The resulting inquiry caused a national sensation and led to many of those involved (including Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison) being indicted - all those cases however were eventually dismissed on technicalities.

As a response to these events, the Lord Chamberlain introduced a set of rules which English Theatres must henceforth abide by in order to retain their licenses. These rules were aimed at improving theatre safety and accountability and included the following measures:

1. The name of the actual and responsible Manager of the Theatre must be printed on every playbill.
2. The public can leave the Theatre at the end of the performance by all exit and entrance doors, which must open outwards.
3. Where there is a fireproof screen to the proscenium opening it must be lowered at least once during every performance to ensure its being in working order.
4. Smoking is not permitted in the Auditorium.
5. All gangways, passages and staircases must be kept free from chairs or any other obstructions, whether permanent or temporary.

The gradual replacement of gas with electric lighting, and more rigidly applied safety regulations like those mentioned above did much to improve the safety of theatres in the years that followed. So much so, that when a fire broke out during a performance at The Empire Palace Theatre in Edinburgh in 1911, although ten of the performers and stage staff died, the whole of the audience of about 3000 apparently cleared the building in just under two and a half minutes.