STRINGENT PRECAUTIONS TAKEN AGAINST PICTURE FILM FIRES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18960, 6 January 1930, Page 7

STRINGENT PRECAUTIONS TAKEN AGAINST PICTURE FILM FIRES.

Minister Explains That Public Are In No Danger In New Zealand.

(Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON. January 4. The recent picture theatre disaster at Paisley, Scotland, in which seventy children were killed in a panic resulting from a fire in the projection room, was referred to to-day by the Minister ol Internal Affairs (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 Perrelle pointed out that the Cinematograph Films Act, 1928, contains provisions for ensuring public safety in picture theatres, and said that the regulations under the Act were being generally observed in picture theatres in New Zealand. The regulations required that the projection room in which the film was screened 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. Fire extinguishers were required to be placed alongside the machines for use in emergency, 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 with 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 cer-

tain 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 cases 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 ask ing the 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 average 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 had had constructed a model projection room for the purpose 1 of demonstrations with fire extinguishers, and arrangements had been ■ made to hold a public demonstration 1 during the present month while the » motion picture exhibitors’ conference i was in session in Wellington so as to : enable the fire and insurance authori ; ties, and the trade generally, to see 1 the effect of burning film in a projection room.