The Arena at Gwinnett Center: It's People, Stupid.

On the heels of the third installment of our fire safety reviews comes the fourth; a trip to the Arena at Gwinnett Center. Why so soon? Because we were there the night after we were at the EARL for our third review.


The Arena at Gwinnett Center
6400 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097
Capacity: 13,100
Visited On: October 25, 2008
Reason For Visit: Band-Weezer

What Could Burn: That's a tough question in a building this big. There really isn't much. In the seating area for concerts the seats themselves are the only real concern beside the stage. But the seats are probably required to be fire-resistive. (Note: There is no such thing as fire-proof. Everything will burn.) There are box seats in suites that probably have quite a bit of flammable furniture and other stuff. But on the whole - not much here to burn.

Egress: These kinds of buildings tend to be on the up and up. The elected officials and bureaucrats that are responsible for these things don't want 13,100 dead people on their hands so they are pretty strict. Buildings this size are expensive as hell so adding a little more cost for fire safety isn't really that much to ask.

These buildings are built to get people in an out quickly so there are plenty of exits to the lobby areas. But unlike our previous discussions about how people leave buildings in a panic this turns that argument on its ear.

In case you haven't read any of the other entries in this series, most people in a panic leave exactly the way they entered. This is exactly what happened at the Station Nightclub fire where 100 people died and 200 were injured. Fifty-eight of that 100 dead were found in the immediate vicinity of the front door even though there were other exits available. They piled up and were unable to get out ahead of a rapidly moving fire. It's truly horrible video if you see the full unedited tape.

Anyway, egress is a main concern of buildings the size of the Arena. That's what makes the complete absence of exit signs within the seating area so odd. I have to theorize that the exits aren't marked so that people will, contrary to what we think we want them to do, do what we know they will do. I think they are actually relying on people moving up the stairs the way they came in. If there were exit signs down near the floor area, for instance, it would be very possible that people would go that way. And in a building this big you risk getting lost. So going out the way you came in is actually a good idea.

Fire Protection: The building is sprinklered in the common areas and anywhere else the ceiling is a reasonable height. But in large open areas like the seating area sprinklers really aren't going to do you any good. The sprinkler head has to get up to a reasonably high temperature to activate. The area at the ceiling of an arena would have to be really hot over a large space to activate a sprinkler head. And this is only going to happen if the thing is rolling. And I mean rolling to the point that sprinklers wouldn't put the fire out at that point.

Miscellaneous: When we walked in the door we were immediately greeted by a haze in all of the lights of the lobby areas. Of course it was just the smoke effects for the band that was already playing, but it was funny nonetheless.

Overall: What can I say, it's really a pretty safe place from a fire safety standpoint. I give The Arena at Gwinnett Center an Above Average rating. The only real problem is the number of people that you're surrounded by. So as long as you keep your wits about you, you should be pretty safe. Just remain aware and vigilant.

The East Atlanta Restaurant and Lounge

Welcome to my third installment of fire safety reviews of band venues in the Atlanta area. Our first two reviews took place in the same building, but we have moved to East Atlanta for our next review. We went to the E.A.R.L. to see the amazing Ben Kweller.

E.A.R.L.
488 Flat Shoals Ave.
East Atlanta, GA 30316
Capacity: 300?
Visited On: October 24, 2008
Reason For Visit: Band - Ben Kweller

What Could Burn: Well, in a word: everything. The EARL is in an older building in East Atlanta. It wouldn't surprise me if it was more than sixty years old. It is wood frame construction with only limited fire-resistive components (I wasn't able to inspect the walls but they might be cinder block.) The roof is wood with exposed rafters throughout the venue area. More importantly, the floor of the venue is wooden. Although I couldn't check it out at the time, there is a distinct possibility that this building has a basement or at least a crawl space based on this floor construction.

The prospect of there being a basement below is somewhat troubling; fire in the basement, floor collapse, etc. The building's age is a pro and a con at the same time. It's old and could come down any minute vs. it's old and has stood for sixty years so why would it come down now?

Egress: There are two ways out of the venue. The way you come in is through a door with a long hallway on the other side. At that side of the room there are actually two doors; one marked entrance and one exit. The problem here is that the entrance door swings in. In a panic it is very possible that people will try to go out the way they came in. And here we're talking not just the direction but the actual door. Paula actually made this mistake when we were leaving. The fact that the door swings open into the venue poses the problem that people will jam up against it then be unable to open it. It would be a simple thing to remedy but I don't know if anyone has realized the danger.

There is another exit on the other side of the room with the door near the front of the stage. As I mentioned in the last review I don't like having to go close to the stage to exit since that's where a fire is most likely to start. But this exit makes up for its proximity to the stage by being an oversized door. I think this is probably that way so that bands can load equipment a little easier, but it makes for a better exit. The door doesn't lead directly to the outside but from what I could see it's only a few feet to the exterior door.

Both exits from the venue are properly marked with lit signs and both are free from obstruction.

Fire Protection: The building isn't sprinklered probably due to the fact that it was built long before they became required. It is somewhat surprising that they aren't required when an older building changes uses as this one did when it became a bar. I realize that it does represent a substantial investment but it's not without merit.

Miscellaneous: I did locate a fire extinguisher near the rear exit. It was the only one I saw and probably was the only one in the room due to the fact that the standard for most occupancies is 75 ft of travel distance. That means that you can't have to walk more than 75 ft to the extinguisher from any point in the room. As usual I located the extinguisher and made mental plans for employing it in case of an emergency.

The room is pretty dark with the only real light coming from the stage area, but there really isn't any furniture or anything else for you to bump into.

This show was a non-smoking show so that takes away some of the possibility of an accidental fire but usually the EARL allows smoking...lots of smoking.

Overall: Well, the EARL is a nice place to see a show. I've seen a few bands there and it seems a lot of the bands I like like to play there. But from a fire safety standpoint I have to give the venue an average rating based on the type of construction and lack of a sprinkler system. I give them points for their exits and the fire extinguisher in the open, but it's not enough to totally ease my mind.

Which is really the point of all of these reviews. I'm not slanting my reviews to purposefully frighten people but it's really something that you should think about. Anytime you are in a structure with a lot of other people (many of whom are not necessarily thinking with all of their abilities) you need to plan your way out.

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.

The Loft, The Loft, The Loft Is On Fire

You know, my friend Jeremy has a blog where he reviews all of the shows that he goes to. He does an excellent job and sees many more bands than his "older, married with kids" friend can (me if you needed to be told.) So I figured I might try to cover an aspect of the musical venues that he doesn't really talk about.

Becoming a firefighter years ago forever changed my thinking. I tend to want to quantify danger in any situation. A few months ago when we went to an upscale hotel bar after dinner, I couldn't help thinking what I would do if the far corner of the room caught on fire. It plays out in my head kind of like the W.O.P.R contemplated World War III, only I'm not as fast or smart.

Anyway, my career choice coupled with what happened at the Great White show at The Station Nightclub in Rhode Island in 2003 (currently the fourth most deadly nightclub fire in the US) leaves me going to shows and looking for ways out of the building. So I think I will begin to review the venues themselves from a fire safety standpoint. I'm not trying to take the place of the Fire Marshal here, I'm just theorizing on how the building itself would affect a fire. Let's start with the venue for my last show, which was covered in the previous post.

The Loft

1374 West Peachtree Street

Atlanta, GA 30309

Capacity: 800

Visited on: August 18, 2008

Reason for visit: Bands - Steel Train and The Hush Sound

What Could Burn: The Loft is located in an old office building of sorts. It's typical fire-resistive construction: concrete. This makes it really good for withstanding fires since the building won't burn readily. However, as we all learned when the "Fireproof" Winecoff Hotel burned, it's the contents, stupid! But The Loft has this covered as it is very sparsely decorated (I really can't figure out where the pictures that are on the website were taken. It doesn't look anything like that.) Almost no furniture save for the actual bar. Nothing on the walls. No drop ceiling. Except for the stage there really isn't anything that could catch on fire. So The Loft passes my construction/contents test pretty well.

Egress: A couple of years ago I met someone who was staying in the Winecoff Hotel the night of the fire (It's still the deadliest hotel fire in US history with 119 dead, most of them teenagers.) This person related the events of that night and then added that from that night on, every time he stayed in a hotel he would get to his room and then count the number of doorways to the nearest exit. He said he did this so that he could find the exit in the dark and smoke by feeling the doors. That's experience talking. How many of us blow off the lecture that the flight attendants give about the emergency exits on the plane? It's the same thing, really. I know I don't want to die in a hotel, at least not the ones I can afford to stay in.

The Loft is located on the second floor so it's not out of reach of ladders (most nightclubs aren't.) But unlike most other nightclubs The Loft has many large floor to ceiling windows that happen to overlook West Peachtree. Don't let this fool you. Most windows in mid-rise and hi-rise office buildings aren't regular glass. They're impregnated with plastics and other materials to make them strong enough to stand up to the stresses that large buildings encounter. You aren't just going to throw a chair through the window like in the movies (unless you're thinking of Die Hard when he tries in vain to break the window with the chair, in which case: EXACTLY!)

But windows aren't really how you want to leave a structure if given a choice. No, you want to go out the regular exits. There were only two marked that I could see from in front of the stage. I didn't check out the second one since it was behind a pair of double doors guarded by security, but the other one was the main entrance to the establishment. This is the way most people leave in an emergency; they go out the way they came in (precisely why so many people died in the Station fire.) The only problem with the way we came in is that it included a flight of stairs. In a panic people are likely to bottleneck in the stairwell and then trampling and crushing starts, which only makes things worse and more desperate. Me? I've got my eye on that second exit behind the double doors. I venture to say that only 5% of the people in the bar would exit that way so it's probably going to be much safer. So from an egress point of view The Loft doesn't really pass the test for Joe and Jane bar/club patron who aren't paying attention to that kind of thing.

Fire Protection: The Loft has fire sprinkler coverage everywhere that I could see. This is really good. The idea is that the sprinklers put the fire out before it gets to be a big fire. (Nobody burns up but we do still have a stampede in the stairwell like we talked about.) That's all provided that the system is maintained as it should be. But there's nothing to suggest it isn't so...

Miscellaneous: The only other real problem I have with The Loft is how dark it is. In between bands the only lights in the joint were from the stage and the dimly lit bar. It was enough to get around but I really couldn't see people's faces or my feet. I know that bars aren't supposed to be brightly lit, but in this post we're talking about safety not ambience. Take that dark and add some really nasty black smoke from a fire and you have a situation in which people won't be able to see those two exit signs marking the way out. Just another reason to familiarize yourself with their location.

There isn't any smoking allowed in the main area of the bar or near the stage. Since it's the only real thing that could catch on fire in the place that's a plus.

Overall: When you consider all of the smaller venues in Atlanta, The Loft is one of the safer places to see a band that I have been in. I still recommend checking the place out and noting the locations of the exits and anything that might block your path to them, but overall, you should relax and enjoy the show. I did.