TRAGEDY OF PANIC

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 85, 4 January 1930, Page 11

TRAGEDY OF PANIC

CANNOT BE AVERTED BY EXITS THE CASE OF WELLINGTON THEATRES Whenever, as only too frequently happens, there are panic disasters in theatres in any part of the world, attention is usually centred on the means of exit provided by local theatres, as though an abundance of them would avert calamity in case of a panic. While it is vastly important that ample exits should be provided in all theatres and halls of entertainment, it does not necessarily follow that such would prevent tragic happenings were a panic to take place, as that usually means in the generality of cases that a preponderance of the audience take leave of their senses, and mrfke a mad rush for the doors, irrespective of and without the slightest consideration for others. In the case of a theatre with a dozen exits it is just as possible for a calamity to occur at each of such exits as at two or three. Panic is a form of dementia which seizes people in dangerous crises, and cannot be provided for architecturally. It may be averted, checked, or even stopped by the action of one or more persons setting a sensible .example. Panic in burning theatres has been averted by cool, heady actors, singers, and conductors doing exactly the right thing at the moment to allay the terror which has seized upon the minds of the audience, but in a modern picture show the human element has been almost entirely eliminated and there is no one before the audience to give a lead. Wellington By-Laws. Wellington audiences are pretty well guarded in respect to outbreaks of fire in kinemas. In the first instance the City Council insists on the operating room being erected outside the main walls of the theatre, and the only means of communication between the box and the auditorium are the apertures through which the shafts of light conveying the image are thrown on to the screen. Each aperture is provided with a fireproof shutter, which can be lowered in an instant, thus shutting off the box altogether from the main body of the theatre. An example of how safe the local system may be deemed occurred only a lew months ago, when a length of “talkie” film, took fire in the box of a mid-city theatre. The smoke of the burning film could be seen from the street emerging from the windows of the box, and the pungent odour of the burning celluloid could be detected for hundreds of yards, but on an inquiry being made inside the theatre as to the trouble, a “Dominion” reporter ascertained that not one person inside the theatre, which was filled to its capacity, knew anything about the accident, and not one person had moved from a seat. Yet the whole of a very valuable “short” film was destroyed that night. The Theatre Firemen. Then there are other very strict regulations insisted upon in this country. There is a fireman attached to each theatre, whose business is to see that no one is permitted to sit in the aisles, on the steps, or crowd the back of the stalls or galleries. Each exit has to be plainly marked, and • the word “exit” is illuminated by an oil wick device (in case the usual lighting system falls under stress of accident). ' There may be theatres the exits of which are not very satisfactory, and that may not apply strictly to kiuema houses. The test of a theatre’s exits is the time it takes to empty at the close of a performance, and in that respect there is considerable variation. However, as stated above, a panic such as occurred 'at the New Year at Paisley (Scotland) may have occurred in a theatre with the finest exit system known, for there is no known method of controlling a mob of terrorcrazed children packed within the walls of a theatre.