Theater Conditions at Philadelphia

Theater Conditions at Philadelphia

GENERAL NEWS FEATURES

Philadelphia theaters are to-day better protected against fire under preventive measures than a year ago. Improvements are now in progress to place fire-prevention facilities in these playhouses on a still higher scale of efficiency. This, in substance, is the report of Fire Marshal J. S. Mallory. It represents the results of an investigation made by the fire-prevention commission. “It was especially gratifying to note the co-operative spirit of the management of every theater.” reads the report, “when defects endangering life nr property were set forth. The result has been that in the last year our theaters have improved vastly, both as to the means of safely removing their patrons in a quick, quiet, orderly method, through additional exits, more modern fire escapes and towers, and through the training of employes not engaged in dismissing the audience to handle the various private fire appliances to fight back the danger until the arrival of the fire department.” Fire alarm boxes are being relocated and patrols organized in every theater. Defects found by the investigators included rotten hose, missing hose nozzles, dead chemical extinguishers. fire doors blocked by obstructions and in some cases tightly nailed shut, uninstructed firemen on duty, emergency fire-fighting apparatus missing or inoperative, crowded aisles and inadequate exits, lack of fire drill among theater employes. Commenting upon the withdrawal of city firemen from the theaters, the report said it could be reasonably deducted why a theater should not have such service if the same was not rendered to other places of public safety, as well as to many department stores, especially during the Christmas season.