Vinyl Will Burn

This post is the second in my series on fire safety at venues around Atlanta. I previously had reviewed The Loft after seeing Steel Train and The Hush Sound there. Well, once again the band is Steel Train but the venue has changed. But not so much. You see, Vinyl is located in the same building as The Loft.

Vinyl
1374 West Peachtree Street
Atlanta, Ga 30309
Capacity: 300
Visited On: October 22, 2008
Reason for Visit: Band - Steel Train

What Could Burn: Since Vinyl is located in the same building as The Loft we find the same type of construction. And as before we find that the danger is the contents, not the building itself. Vinyl is sparsely decorated, but there are portions that are cause for pause; specifically over the audience in front of the stage. Fabric has been attached to the ceiling in a kind of draping decoration. It's gathered in places and hangs in others. The problem with it is that it's above the sprinkler heads. If the fabric were to catch fire the heat from the fire would be above the sprinkler heads and wouldn't activate them. What's more, the smoke would probably be bad. It would choke and blind the patrons preventing them from finding the way out. Which leads us to...

Egress: There are three ways out of Vinyl. The first is the front door leading in off of the street. It's just a few steps down and not much of a worry. Except for the fact that the emergency exit sign is currently not working. So that leaves only the other two. The second exit is actually a hallway into another part of the building. It's also only a few feet from the front door, both of which are to the left of the stage. The third exit is located in a door to the right of the stage.

Now, three exits from this very small bar/venue sounds pretty generous, but the problem is that all of the exits are right around the stage. If the fire starts on the stage (a likelihood with all of that lighting) you would have to pass the fire to get out. There is no exit to the rear of the bar, which is pretty surprising. There are windows across the front of the building but these are also behind the stage which has its back to the street. So Vinyl doesn't really pass on my egress standard.

Fire Protection: Vinyl has sprinkler protection over every area that I could see which is great. But if you look closely at the front of the building you will note that the sprinkler connection is hidden behind some bushes that someone planted. That's right, the connection that the fire department hooks up to to assist the sprinkler system with putting the fire out is blocked with a bush. Now, I'm not saying the sprinkler system won't put the fire out by itself, but you're not supposed to hide the FDC (fire department connection) either.

Miscellaneous: I did see a fire extinguisher out in the audience area mounted on the wall which is somewhat out of the ordinary due to the fact that drunk people like to play with fire extinguishers. But having the extinguisher out where people like me can get to them could mean all the difference. I've often thought how different the Station fire would have been if someone had the presence of mind to grab a fire extinguisher and hit the fire on the ceiling once.

Darkness is also a factor in Vinyl although not as much as previously mentioned in my review of The Loft. Once again the only real light is the stage, but Vinyl does a better job with small lights sprinkled around areas of the ceiling.

Smoking is allowed and to some extent encouraged as someone came around and put an ashtray down in front of us. That of course is a danger.

Overall: Vinyl is very similar to The Loft in most respects. However, the lack of exits on the other side of the room is troubling. When comparing Vinyl so some of the other venues in Atlanta it comes out ahead, but I never got far away from the exits. As a matter of fact, when Steel Train took the stage I was right up front. Near the band. Near the exits.