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Fire safety consultant for haunt industry

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  • Fire safety consultant for haunt industry

    I want to say I am not pointing any fingers or making accusations in the comments below!!!
    As we all know the haunt industry has no shortage of talented designers, builders and vendors to get a haunt looking amazing. Is there anyone offering certified haunt fire safety consultation to our Industry ? As we all know fire is a major issue that is ever increasing and even after 20 plus yrs of experience never gets any easier !! I have even had fire officials from the same city argue and debate over their own correct code. What are we supposed to do when the people who set the standards and make the rules do not even fully know what is going on ?? This yr I have seen several experienced pro attractions that were inspected and passed on the city level get shut down at the state level. The codes we are give are vague and have so much wiggle room to work against us its scary!! Some haunt planner sheets even contradict them selves on the very same page (example) " No extension cords may be used / make sure all extension cords used are not worn or frayed and are not a trip hazard, No plywood is to be used in maze construction / All plywood and lumber must be treated with fire retardant / do not use fire retardant to treat walls as it creates smoke and fumes when ignited ". Some state fire Marshals offices have already already called for the removal of plywood walls for haunts even if they are used outside !!! lets face it no matter how safe we are or how high were rated everyone is vulnerable !! Who has not got any plywood or rigid foams used in their attractions ? If you do as the laws are interpreted you could be in violation and shut down. My question is if we spend thousands of $$$ dollars looking good would we spend the same money to be safe and legal ? Is there any certified haunt fire safety consultant that can be hired to make us all 100% compliant and uni-formal across the board? Do we as an industry need a service to satisfy this need? Would you hire and ship in a safety consultant as easily as a designer or painter? Is there a market for this service?
    I'm only doing this to impress 2 people ... The fire marshal and the customer that's it !!!

  • #2
    Fire Code

    I have discussed at length doing this type of business. I was a fire marshal myself and own/operate a haunt and a guy that I worked with is now 2nd in charge of the whole state and we discussed doing this. The problem is that the individual inspectors (or business owners in this case) could give recommendations but would not want to be held liable for anything that either happened or didn't happen. In my opinion, it would cause more harm than good when you tell XYZ fire marshal in your local town that "You're wrong because we paid ABC fire inspections to come tell us the code and they said blah blah" because the problem with any code, law, or heck sentence for that matter is that it can be interpreted differently by different people. Unfortunately it comes down to satisfying your local jurisdiction. What I can tell you is that based on the IFC you will and can avoid a lot of headache with sprinkler system etc. by staying under 1000 sq ft. or keeping your building classified as anything other than a special amusement building, however even the definition of a special amusement building is even up for debate by the people who write the code themselves. It's a battle that everyone is fighting and the only solution I would see is that the industry as a whole would have to lobby when the codes are made like the home builders and everyone else do to keep codes from getting so crazy that nobody can open. In case you are wondering there is even a section in NFPA 1 that regulates corn mazes, but lots of jurisdictions don't even know that.

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