Failures in fire protection are the measures and practices that are untaken to prevent the fire from being destructive, resulting in loss of life and destruction of property. The essay will discuss in summary the history of The Iroquois Theatre Fire in Chicago in 1903, the failure of having an installed fire protection system, and today's measures that could be applied to prevent the tragedy.
On December 30, 1903, a fire broke out in the five-week-old Iroquois Theater. The theater filled with an audience comprised of women and children who had traveled for miles to see Mr. Blue Beard. Actors were dressed as animals and a suspended ballerina. The entire theater was crowded, some cast members and audiences blocked the pathways and exits. Shortly into the second act of the performance, an electric fault ignited a muslin curtain on the stage. A stagehand’s effort to contain the fire using a canister was futile, and the fire quickly spread up the stage. Patrons on all corners attempted to escape the theatre without considering unlocking the locked exits on the north side. The bar owner opened the door by use of a latch similar to the doors. Another door got forcefully opened while other doors could not open. The crowd panicked, in the process of trying to flee from the fire, they crushed others in the desperation of the situation. Mass panic followed, causing deaths while people tried to jump and escape from the burning building, and those trapped inside tried to climb over the piles of corpses ending up in blocked exits. The victims suffocated by the fire, gases, and smoke, and others were crushed to death by the stampede of the terrified crowd.In estimation, about 575 people perished on that day (Barnette 2012).
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The failure of installing fire protection measures was the leading cause of the tragedy. The theatre lacked adequate fire alarms, there were no marked exits, to make it worse, the exit doors covered with the curtains which were not fireproof, these doors opened from the inside. The skylights on the ceiling were completely closed, which could be opened in case of a fire outbreak to allow smoke and heat to escape. They lacked automatic sprinklers, which are smoke sensitive, and there were no suitable fire extinguishing devices. Within days, theatres in Chicago got closed until the city officials assured that there was better protection against fires tragedies.
The measures that could have prevented the tragedy today are as follows ( Kodur 2019); the installation of fire extinguishers in plenty, which could immediately prevent the ignited fire from spreading. Stage fire blankets could have been available for the people that clothes had caught fire to get wrapped—installation of Early Suppression Fast Response Fire sprinklers Systems (ESFR) and water mist systems. The fine mist smoothers a fire and suffocates it faster; also, the stage ventilations are essential protective measures, the necessity of having two or more vents, which are not less than five percent of the stage area. Fire alarms installation in the building and marked exit doors with red lighting are also a necessity. Besides, the integrated voice evacuation and the messaging system could have been so helpful, since the distributed intelligence points out instructions to the building occupants about fire and how to escape.
References
Barnette, J. (2012). The Matinee Audience in Peril: The Syndicate's Mr. Bluebeard and the Iroquois Theatre Fire. In Theatre Symposium (Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 23-29). The University of Alabama Press.
Kodur, V., Kumar, P., & Rafi, M. M. (2019). Fire hazard in buildings: review, assessment, and strategies for improving fire safety . PSU Research Review .
