Six Flags New England haunt catches fire, no injuries reported

Are haunted houses naturally firetraps? SFGA, this one, the one at SFA two years ago...

Yes. Three fires in 26 years definitely qualifies haunted houses as firetraps.

-Nate

You guys do know this wasn't a haunted house just built for fright fest it was SFNEs Houdini ride building facade.

Yes, we know that.

Haunts were, at one time, known for problems with fire. The fire at SFGAdv is a landmark fire in the haunt industry, because after that, haunt operators started paying attention to fire safety within their attractions.

Most haunts these days use expensive fire retardant sprays on their walls, and have sprinkler systems in place because of the fire at Great Adventure, so many years ago. They are designed with fire exits throughout as well.

If I recall correctly, the haunt that caught on fire at Great Adventure was designed with several semi-truck trailers. They had no emergancy exits, not sprinkler systems, and no fiore retardant on the structure. Back then, fire safety wasn't taken seriously in haunts.

Stupid people still light their lighter when it's dark in a haunt. That makes me nervous.

In most States, if not all, it is part of the building code to use these precautions. Maybe someone here knows more and can share?

LostKause said:

Stupid people still light their lighter when it's dark in a haunt. That makes me nervous.

Thankfully these have been replaced by cell phones for the most part.

I know CP sprays a fire retardant on all the corn and hay bales in the park, and the corn in Corn Stalkers gets sprayed down by retardant daily.

A few years back (in college) a group of us in the dorm decided to build a haunt in the basement. This was limited to just the college students. We were on a college budget so the materials were limited. We spent 1000's of hours getting that thing ready. About 2 days before opening (all profit to charity by the way) the fire department shows up for an unannounced inspection. It seems that one upset person in the dorm who had earlier protested this attraction on religious grounds, had tipped off the fire department.

Now the funny part. While very polite, the fireman was appauled at our "death trap." Our walls were construction grade cardboard covered with garbage sacks hung from an alarmed and sprinklered ceiling. He preached of all the dangers. In an attempt to teach us a lesson he took down one of the walls to show us how flamable the garbage sacks and cardboard were. When 5 minutes with a lighter could not ignite...they got out a torch and spent a good 10 minutes torching the bags and board which NEVER caught fire. We sprayed it with something cheap to prevent the very problem they claimed to be protecting us from...I forget what it was.

They still shut us down for safety reasons. Thousands of hours...a decent budget for college was wasted because our walls which would not ignite under 10 minutes of torching white hot flame were deemed a fire hazzard.

Step one in creating any haunt is to make friends with your local fire department. ;) Getting them involved from the beginning goes a long way. They can offer suggestions as to where to place you fire exits, donate fire extinguishers, and give classes to your staff about fire safety. After all the hard work that the fire department puts into helping to make you haunt safe, they'll feel as if they are a part of it, and wont even think about shutting you down.

Anyone know the cause of the fire I really dont think it would of been a lighter I would say a par-can style light would be my guess but who knows.
Anyone due to this all erosion netting has been removed from six flags St.Louis that's the word form the workers. I dont see a problem but in a setting like this it all becomes a lawsuit threat which sucks.

You need more punctuation, that post is hard to read.