Muscatine

The Story

I was involved in the construction of the haunted house and I spoke with Muscatine Fire Chief on the night that he came to the haunted house and deemed it to unsafe to open. I don?’t disagree, that when you add more combustible materials to a building that it increases the potential for a problem. But let?’s look at this reasonably.

All haunted houses are designed to be dark, having winding passages with possible dead ends, and are constructed on combustible materials. Though as pointed out in another post, Wal-Mart had their haunted house outside, it was in the garden center, which is enclosed by a high chain link fence. That said, the combustible materials, such as wooden pallets and plastic was used at the Wal-Mart haunted house. These are the same type of materials that were used at the haunted house that we were going to open. We had fire extinguishers, two-way radios for communication, smoke detectors, and each person volunteering their time inside the haunted house would have had a flashlight for safety purposes.

When the fire chief came and voiced his concerns, he was asked what we needed to do in order to open, he said ?“nothing?”. The fire chief was asked to put in writing the reasons that we could not open and he did. Well the reasons that he provided to us in writing, covered the same situation at Wal-Mart with Wal-Mart?’s haunted house. Also, when speaking with the fire chief, he indicated that he did not know of any other haunted houses being in Muscatine in the last fifteen years. I don?’t know if the fire chief is just ill informed or he lives in a vacuum, because their have been a number of haunted houses/mazes in Muscatine in the last fifteen years, and the day after he spoke with us, there was one at Wal-Mart.

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More of the Story

I don?’t want to rain on anyone?’s parade, and say that all haunted houses or mazes should be closed. They are fun for children and adults, and with the proper safety precautions, the risk is minimized. We had signs at the entrance indicating that smoking and open flames were not allowed inside the haunted. We also would have had between 12 ?– 15 volunteers at any one time inside the haunted house for safety, and to escort anyone out that was not following the rules or truly became scared. That last statement would mostly apply to children.

The fire chief told us that the same set of rules regarding why our haunted house could not open would apply to everyone. Well that is apparently not true given the situation at Wal-Mart. Given the regulations that the fire chief cited for not allowing us to open, the fire department needs to start seriously looking at other locations in Muscatine. One example is the children?’s play area at McDonald?’s, which consists of elevated plastic tubes. If there were a fire, and I hope to god there will never be one, tell me how many young children would be able to navigate the maze of tubes and find there way out in the confusion, smoke, and lowered light levels associated with a fire. I believe that McDonalds does have overhead sprinklers, but when was the last time they were checked for operability.

The reality is that if you live, work, or shop, you are in an environment with combustible materials. We take normal steps at home and work such as having fire extinguishers and smoke detectors to increase our safety, though the average home and business will never be 100% fireproof and completely without risk. We asked for assistance from the fire department in making the haunted house as safe we could, though in our situation, the fire chief indicated that there was nothing we could do to open.

In closing, I would like to thank all of the people that volunteered their time to build the haunted house, and money they spent in buying costumes, decorations, prop?’s, and everything else associated with the haunted houses. I would also like to thank, Perfect Pallet, One Time Delivery, The American Red Cross, and the others business for their donations and assistance with the haunted house. The people running the haunted house were going to collect can goods for a discount on the entrance fee, which were to be given to the Muscatine High School for the food drive, and a dollar was to be donated to the Red Cross for each person visiting the haunted house. Seemed like a community working together toward a goal. Isn?’t that what we want?

There is a lot more involved in this story, so if anyone has any questions, just ask.

Also involved

I too was involved in the building of the haunted house. As Orville said, it is not the fact of the fire chief shutting us down.It was the fact that were appoved to open the day before.

Here is what happened. When we decided to do this attraction for everyone, we contacted the City Hall and spoke with the correct people on building permits and ''special attraction'' permits. We were told to contact the Fire Dept. ''after'' the work was done just to have them do a walk through and make sure all was safe for the public.

On Thursday the 11th the Fire Dept. done their walk through and recommended we have a minimum of 3 fire extinguishers, every volunteer to have a flashlight and 2 way radio, and to mark all 3 exits clearly. We complied with this and was set to open on Friday at 7pm. Skip ahead to Friday: At 6:30pm a Fireman showed up and let himself in and began doing another inspection. He informed us that he felt the haunt may be unsafe. We explained Thursdays inspection to him and he said he'd have to contact him superior. 10 minutes later 4 fireman showed up in the rescue truck. All of them walked through and still could not make a decission. Keep in mind we were told by the Chief that the first fireman that showed up on Friday was ''highly trained'' on this type of structure and the previous fireman and firelady were not as trained on this type of structure. We were then told they were going to call the Chief out to look at the haunt. When the Chief arrived they all once again walked through. After 10- 15 minutes of them all standing outside the doors deciding what to do, we were informed we were being shut down due to unsafe conditions. My brother in law spoke up and asked the Chief what we could do to make it safe for the public and we were told ''NOTHING''. The Chief then went into detail on how the first group of firefighters were not trained to inspect this type of structure and they were wrong to give us the go ahead. He also said that the amount of tarping we used was a fire risk, even though the firefighters had already done a burn test on it and it showed to burn very slowly, which we noted to him. Then it became an issue with the dark passageways and dead end hallways. We explained that is how haunts are. We were told it is unsafe because the dead ends block the path to egress.

Now lets skip to Saturday the 13th. We were holding our protest outside the Haunted House when a, ''concerned citizen'' drove up letting us know that the Fire Dept. was at Walmart putting on a safety course while Walmart was operating their Spook House made of plastic and pallets. The same materials we were shut down for. We immediately went out and took photos.

To make a long short we contact Channel 6 news. They listened to our side, and then contacted the Fiore Dept to get thiers. We were told by the reported that the Fire Dept. had no knowledge of the Haunt at Walmart. Channel 6 news was to meet with the Fire. Dept at Walmart. When they arrived, no Fire Dept. The reported told us she called the firehouse and they said to call backin 5 minutes and the crew would be back in. The reporter did so, only to be told now they were in a meeting.

Want to hear the rest? Watch the 10 o'oclock news tonight on Channel 6.

ridiculous

This whole situation is just ridiculous!!! All it is is the fire chief and/or the city on a power trip. While we are speaking of plastic and tarp material, I have something to say about that. Go to Farm and Fleet, they have tarps hanging by their Christmas display. Chief Dalbey better hurry up and get down there and shut them down. ITS NOT SAFE. Someone could walk in there with a lighter...OMG