I arrived in Las Vegas a couple of days early since I didn’t have time to fly home and back between the BHMA meetings and the DHI conference. In addition to getting some work done, I’ve attended a few shows. The first was “O” by Cirque du Soleil, where there were 1,800 seats and the egress doors looked great:
The second show was held in a theater about 1/10th the size, and of course I looked for the nearest exit as soon as I sat down. What I saw reminded me of the Station Nightclub fire, where one of the exits was in an employee-only area, and patrons of the club were reportedly turned away from that egress path by nightclub staff at the beginning of the fire.
The main entrance/exit, with curtains:
The nearest exit is behind the “employees only” sign:
Nice closer 😐 :
I’m happy to say that I survived the show and will be ready for my code update class with Mark Kuhn this morning. If you are in Las Vegas, we’ll see you in class or at the Allegion booth!
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As much as I would like to support the Arts….Theater people and those that run the “show” have to be the most unsafe people around. NO, I’m not saying ALL Theater people, but you may know some as well. I had a local theater group that had a number of gross violations that I almost wanted to scream. They wanted to move their sound booth into the audience, so they carved out a section and started plugging things in…..to the only single outlet that was in the area!! I counted 27 plugs into that one outlet in one form or another!!! Multiple unfused power strips, 3-way extension cords and so on!!! They needed a 12-volt power supply to power a doorbell on stage so….. What was the easiest thing to do…… Put up a 15-foot ladder, take the Emergency Light apart and tap into the 12-volt power supply for the light!! Oh, that also left the Emergency Light inoperative!! They needed storage space so what do they do? The drop the ceiling in the main hallway and add a floor assembly to it (no permits). They “Thought” it was a good thing because there was now a sprinkler system in the newly created space. One of the problems (among many) was they did not extend the sprinkler system to the space below the new storage space. I REALLY could go on and on!!! Not a fan of smaller theater venues.
Yes – I’ve run into some of these too!
– Lori
I especially liked the 5th picture with an illuminated red EXIT sign above the door and a “NOT AN EXIT” sign on the face of the door. Wonder how the local AHJ missed that one…
Also interesting to see a mix of both red and green EXIT signs within the same venue. Not too common for an AHJ to permit a mix like that.
In the last picture the door closer and kick down hold-open device were too much for my eyes to bear.
I’m with you, Larry!
– Lori
Confusing me, An Exit signage is being shown at the wall, But the door state “Not an exit”
Yes, that confused me too.
– Lori