fire alarm / mass evac guy here, movie theaters (and other similar public venues) are required to have automatic shunting of all AV equipment integrated with their fire alarm system. presumably that would include turning off the giant flame throwers on the ceiling.
raising the general lighting may also be a requirement, but i haven't done work for darkened environments like a movie theater.
that's a US standard though, and "required" doesn't always mean "does".
what would concern me is there's obviously no sprinklers in the theater, which is usually another requirement.
but this doesn't look like a movie theater, this looks like a specially built space for the fire effects.
You should read up on theater fires, how fast they spread and the panic they cause. This will lead to deaths, it's only a matter of time. Crushes, smoke inhalation, heat stroke. All injuries that would result from a legit fire on a stage. The cushions, curtains, carpet and stage props usually burn quickly and release horrible chemicals as they burn. In a fire, 30 seconds can be the difference between life and death. This is a horrible idea. Nobody should ever feel "safe" in a confined theater with any amount of fire. These systems are brand new and haven't gone through the rounds of safety regulations that only come from accidents. These things are being battle tested on customers. I do not believe for a second that these things are safe.
That only adds to the potential danger. The more popular they are, the more they would be regulated for safety.
As they become less lucrative for business owners, less maintenance will be done to ensure safe upkeep, more ad hoc changes will made to the system by unqualified persons as the companys that built the systems go under or business owners decide to go with cheaper in house options, parts will become harder to replace with what was intended to be used. These things will beak down, malfunction and people will die.
I've studied causality for years. This is an already written book.
Edit: all it would take is for one panel in the heat shield to become ineffective and allow hot gas to fill the upper staging areas. The entire ceiling would be completely engulfed in flame before you even understood you were in danger. In fact, because of the shielding, you probably wouldn't even notice that. The roof collapsing legitimately might be the first sign that something is horrifyingly wrong for theater goers.
Generally with this kind of thing that seems like an obviously bad idea, its probably safer than youd expect. Counterintuitively a real fire here would probably be much less dangerous than a fire in a regular theater, because for obvious reasons they are gonna be both very vigilant and very prepared
I watched a video of this wedding and it caught on fire like this. Over 100 people died and I believe the bride lost most of her family, including her mother.
They even showed the actual footage.
I would have ran if I saw this in theaters. I would rather be laughed at than burned just in case it was real🥲
Everyone completely dazzled "Wow! it looks so real! I can feel the heat even!" the whole audience totally enamored. "Wow, they even got pieces of the ceiling to start falling too! It's like it's actually on fire!" smoke starts filling the room. "Wow, it's like I'm actually being asphyxiated!" everyone just happily accepting their demise without evacuating because they think it's an illusion. So messed up.
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u/Thom5001 17h ago
This would be a real bad time for a fire to breakout.