Comment sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A Add a Comment . We were planning a big party, and most of the discussion was about the appropriateness of having a celebration, he says. He said that the cause of the blaze was being investigated by the Ocean County Arson Squad and the New Jersey State Police Arson Squad, and that they would probably not have preliminary findings before Monday. He remembers responding to the fire and says he couldn't tell the difference between the prop skeletons and what was real. [6][7] The castle's trailers were linked by plywood partitions to create a complex maze. A report on the tragedy released by the National Fire Protection Association said the structure was made of 17 interconnected commercial trailers and plywood frames. I realized he laid the groundwork for a great comparisonhe beat the path, and we retraced his steps., The response to Chet Schirmers Haunted Castle testimony was savage and swift. No costumes for guest over the age of 12. Fleming performed an exquisite analysis based on the tools available at the time, says Fairchild. Conversely, an analysis of potential sprinkler performance in the Haunted Castle conducted a year after the fire found that sprinklers could have prevented the fatalities. Using the previously developed data and expert witness testimony to locate the sprinklers, Fleming calculated the dry-pipe sprinkler operating times. The park is about 60 miles southwest of New York City in central New Jersey. Read more about code changes prompted by the Haunted Castle fire. Archived post. Fire consumed a foam pad inside the Haunted Castle and spread through the structure. But while they agree with Fleming that sprinkler control would have been effective, they found that the activation time was much more difficult to predict. Flemingwho would later serve on NFPAs Standards Council and its Board of Directors and write a long-standing column for this magazinebegan reviewing testimony, and found what he considered three significant errors made by the expert witnesses called by the defense in their assumptions about fire spread and the potential performance of sprinklers during the incident. Anyone can read what you share. Therefore, in my opinion, smoke and heat detectors would not have been of any particular value in this building., The response to Schirmers testimony was sharp and immediate. Great Escape Lake George, NY. Unhappy Mother's Day, ''The most tragic thing is these kids died in a place they went to have fun,'' said the high school's principal, Morton Damesek, sitting in his Queens home. The expert witnesses then restarted the fire as a small fire instead of acknowledging that, by then, it would have grown large enough to activate sprinklers. The fire and its aftermath [25], The defense denied any culpability, saying that company executives had carefully considered all safety recommendations, acting on some and rejecting others, and contending that the fire was arson and that no precautions would have saved lives in a fire where an accelerant was used. In his final report, Analysis of Potential Fire Sprinkler Performance in the Great Adventure Fire, Fleming concluded that although hazardous conditions would likely have developed within the [room of origin] itself prior to water delivery, hazardous conditions would not have developed outside the [room of origin], and safe egress from the facility would likely have been maintained. In short, it is likely that the loss of life would have been prevented.. [28] His testimony was later criticised by other fire-safety experts as undermining efforts to advance sprinkler legislation. According to the testimony of Joseph Iraca,. He combined this information with trial testimony to conclude that an ultra-fast fire growth curve was appropriate. The park's Haunted Castle horror attraction was consumed by flames and left eight people dead all teenagers and seven more injured. ''We were so naive,'' said the principal. They also fascinated him. Thirty-three students were missing. Restrictions apply. Park officials said pre-fire attendance levels were restored the next year after they reassured the public that the park was made safer by the addition of $5.2 million worth of sprinklers and computerized smoke and heat detectors. For the first time in its history, however, the leadership of NFPAs Board chairman had come into question, according to an October 1985 report to NFPA members from the Executive Committee of the Board. Peter Smith, author of "Doorway to Hell: The Mysteries and Controversies Surrounding the Deadly Haunted Castle Fire at Six Flags Great Adventure," said it's still saddening, looking back on the fire. After the fire, Six Flags Great Adventure updated park structures with equipment that includes sprinkler systems, smoke and heat detectors and emergency generators, and added an in-house. Author(s): Kathleen Robinson. Instead, we can offer probabilities., He stresses that its not game over, though. A park official testified that having an employee assigned to walk continually through the attraction was a good alternative to the smoke alarms. Great Adventure officials declined to comment on the film.[44]. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. [17][18], The panel said the state's Uniform Construction Code[19] required the owners to install smoke detectors and several other common safety devices before the castle opened. Hurricane Harbor New Jersey. All lived in the nearby neighborhoods of Cypress Hills and Ridgewood in Brooklyn. To help create the right mood, creepy music was played over exterior speakers. But it did lead to new fire safety procedures, including sprinkler systems. Most of the attraction was contained in 16 commercial truck trailers, connected by plywood and wood framing. Officials at the Franklin K. Lane High School said they believed that four of the other victims were friends of Mr. Valentine - three classmates at Lane and one from the Automotive High School in Queens. Mr. Van Arsdale said he did not know why the group was not able to escape. The indictment also charged two park executives, the general manager at the time of the fire and his predecessor, with manslaughter for reckless conduct in ignoring repeated warnings of safety violations.[20]. Now the . Published on May 2, 2014. Despite this, the Haunted Castle became the parks largest single-show attraction since its construction. There was nothing there. When the fire was declared under control, at 7:45 p.m., 15 mutual aid companies had responded with 300 firefighters. The staffing requirements for the haunted house were drawn from other areas of the park; they were clowns and street performers when they were not acting as vampires or serial killers. Wed had a home fire a year or two before, which I can still vividly picture in my head. The site in Jackson was cleared to make way for the Botanical Gardens. THE Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey was just like any other theme park on a spring day in 1984. . About an hour later, two girls from the school were taken to the hospital, suffering from smoke inhalation. The fire and its aftermath The work by Fairchild and Casterline is the latest chapter in a saga that began with the tragic deaths of eight young people on a spring evening in 1984. [21][23][24], The boy who had come forward as a witness during the initial investigation repeated what he had told investigators earlier, testifying for the prosecution that he had seen another boy his agea boy he did not knowaccidentally set the fire with a cigarette lighter by brushing its flame against a foam wall pad. Mr. Berkery's father, who is also named Peter, said: ''There was a lot of smoke and it did not smell like a wood fire. A makeshift plywood wall six feet high hid the rubble yesterday. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Neither did four of his fellow students. Admission is free with valid Pass or Membership. Spooky + Safe NFPAs Bouchard, testifying on behalf of the prosecution, said that sprinklers or smoke alarms might have allowed the fire to be detected earlier, perhaps allowing the victims, none of whom was found in the room of fire origin, to escape. Incidents at Six Flags parks | Six Flags Wiki | Fandom Smith speaks of an "emotionally disturbed" youth with a history of setting fires who "kept playing with a lighter in his pocket" and resembled the boy that was said to have started the fire. As the thirtieth anniversary of the Haunted Castle fire approached, Fairchild, now manager and senior associate of fire protection and life safety at Ballinger, an architectural/engineering firm in Philadelphia, decided to take another look at the event. [6] At peak times, the doorman would alternate sides to keep a gap between groups to allow for greater effect and to keep the leaders from warning the following group of upcoming surprises. The response to Chet Schirmers Haunted Castle testimony was savage and swift, Schirmer also testified that shouts of Fire! were preferable to smoke alarms in occupied buildings, according to The New York Times, because such alarms might be misinterpreted. Predicting sprinkler activation times is highly dependent on fire growth rate, which DETACT has no ability to model, Fairchild says. Fourteen, including four park employees, managed to escape. Criminal charges of aggravated manslaughter were filed against the company, but a Superior Court jury in Toms River returned a not-guilty verdict. Six Flags Great Adventure is home to 14 world-class coasters, thrilling family rides and a 350-acre drive-thru safari right next door. You can either pay for purchases . At the trial, the jury ruled that Great Adventure Inc. and Six Flags Corp. were not guilty. John Caufield, the fire chief in Newark, New Jersey, and the chair of the New Jersey Fire Safety Commission, told reporters that he thought Schirmer had set back the cause of sprinklers at least 25 years. Ron Coleman, a fire chief in Fullerton, California, said Schirmers testimony made it more difficult for us out in the field. John Peige, executive editor of Firehouse, told the Times that Schirmer, as chair of NFPAs Board of Directors, had a higher callingto uphold basic fire protection principles and not bring them into question.. A second juror disagreed, saying that township officials were not derelict. Based on work that had gone into the development of residential sprinklers, Fleming believed that sprinklers had successfully proven their abilities in spaces with similar geometries. The bodies were burnt beyond recognition and were originally thought to be mannequins. Six Flags Great Adventure and its parent company Six Flags were indicted for aggravated manslaughter and accused of recklessly causing the deaths by taking inadequate precautions against a fire. r/CrimeScene is a friendly community for people who are interested in discussing and sharing crime scene photos and information related to them. Some visitors and employees Smith interviewed thought doors were blocked at times for the security of the actors and to keep people from going outside to smoke cigarettes or marijuana. At the end of the 1978 season, the attraction was disassembled and sent to Six Flags Over Mid-America, where it would continue to run from 1979 through 1982. He said they were comforting each other and talking about a single funeral for all five teen-agers. Six Flags Great Adventure. Get Your Haunted Attractions Pass. In other words, I have an honest uncertainty as to whether sprinklers under these circumstances would have saved the lives. Furthermore, he said, considering the early stages at which the fire was discovered in this particular instance, the installation of smoke detectors or an alarm system would not have had an effect on the ultimate outcome.. A new section titled Special Provisions for Special Amusement Buildings was added to the 1988 edition, requiring every special amusement building, such as the Haunted Castle, to be protected throughout by an approvedand properly installed and maintained automatic sprinkler system. A spokesman for the local volunteer fire department said it had not enforced the state requirement for smoke detectors because the township's building inspector said that the code did not apply: the inspector had determined that the Castle was a temporary structure. Strobe lights and eerie sounds completed the scene. The fire would have been detected earlier and perhaps controlled to a tenable situation, he told the court. Great Escape. Guide to Six Flags New England - TripSavvy '', His father, Peter Sr., added: "There was a lot of smoke and it did not smell like a wood fire. Six Flags New England in Springfield, MA - Thrill Capital of New England On the topic of sprinkler suppression and its impact on life safety, however, Fairchild and Casterline hit a snag. It was acrid, black and heavy and it stunk.'. [4], The layout of the Haunted Castle was two sets of eight semi-trailers lined up in a mirror configuration. See Holiday In The Park Dates . Various theatrical props and exhibits were in view, including coffins, ghoulish mannequins, hanging spider webs and skeletons. Were still studying it, he says. The boy told the police that he had been befriended by a fourteen-year-old boy at the castle's entrance. He wanted to use state-of-the-art computer modeling to analyze the growth rate, potential sprinkler response times, water delivery times, maximum heat release rates, and tenability criteria of the fire to see if he could reach a definitive answer on the sprinkler question. [15] The township considered the castle a "temporary structure", even after it had been at the park for five years, based on the fact that the trailers were still on wheels. Anniversary of fatal Haunted Castle fire | | qchron.com [4][10] Approximately 29 guests were in the attraction at the time. The Scene The new sprinkler analysis Interviewed after the trial, the jury foreman blamed Jackson Township officials for repeatedly allowing the Castle to exploit flaws in the fire code. Terrifying theme park disasters - from haunted house inferno to river A medieval-styled faade was built for the Haunted Castle on the site of the Alpen Blitz across from the Muzik Express. Using the defense assumptions in combination with the quantitative methods available to him at the time, Fleming analyzed the likely performance of automatic sprinklers in the Haunted Castle fire. At about 6 P.M. Friday, he recalled, he was walking with a walkie-talkie, keeping in touch with other school officials. Families and friends had gathered to have fun alongside thrillseekers trying out the latest rides. Seven were found in the same corridor. . The main event of the Halloween season is back! A Haunted House Add-On lets you visit all of our premium haunted houses, which are sold separately from your park admission. All posts must contain accurate, unbiased information and adhere to the rules found below. Ghost at Six Flags Great Adventure Amusement Park A hotline number - (201) 928-2000 - was set up at the popular amusement park to answer questions about the blaze and the victims. Join us during Fright Fest and enjoy family-friendly events during the day & bone-chilling thrills at night. As the nine teenagers hid in a corner waiting to jump out and scare the group behind them, they heard someone screaming, "Fire!" followed by smoke. 8 PEOPLE KILLED, 7 HURT IN BLAZE AT THEME PARK - New York Times They set off a storm of controversy in the fire protection industry when they told the court that, in their opinions, sprinklers would have saved some of the property, but they would not have saved the lives of the eight teenagers who died in the fire. Only the red side was operating the night of the fire. Kathleen Robinson is editorial operations manager for NFPA Journal. Attached to its exterior were painted turrets and towers of plywood on wooden frames intended to emulate a medieval faade. SIX FLAGS HAUNTED CASTLE FIRE 4 Emergency personnel responding to the disaster had to use white body bags to differentiate the victims from the charred mannequins. six flags haunted castle disaster victims - ios.pe TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. The combination of the two really unnerved me.. School Rings in Rubble. About 1,000 students, most in 17 buses and some in private cars, traveled to the park, nearly 50 miles from midtown Manhattan, Mr. Damesek, the principal, said. Six Flags New England accepts card payments only at all locations including restaurants, retail stores, games, ticket windows, and parking toll booths. The bodies were charred beyond recognition. The Ocean County Medical Examiner, Dr. Walter Corrigan, has made public only two names: Joseph Beyroutey, 17, of Paterson, a senior at Passaic County Technical High School, and Tina Genovese of Williamstown, N.J., who was in her teens. In turn, the state's Department of Community Affairs is responsible for ensuring that municipalities enforce the codes. [25], Park officials testified that smoke alarms had been installed, but the park was unable to control vandalism to them and decided not to reinstall them after 1979. . The Six Flags Haunted Castle Disaster, Jackson Township, NJ May 11, 1984. [29], The jury, after an eight-week trial and thirteen hours of deliberation, found the two companies not guilty of the charges. In other words, it is necessary that water hit high enough on the walls to prevent fire spread, and it is also necessary that the sprinkler operate fast enough to knock the fire down and maintain tenability limits in that space of origin.. When the buses pulled into the school yard at 1 A.M., many parents who had heard the news on television were waiting nervously. Park Policies - Six Flags New England The fire, which began at 6:35 P.M. in an attraction called the Haunted Castle, was brought under control at 7:45 P.M. A place for forensic students, medical examiners, morticians and other morbidly interested individuals to respectfully discuss content relevant to a crime scene. Shortly into my shift I was inexplicably pulled out of shop to stand watch and divert visitors from an area engulfed in smoke and flames. Alcoves along the route were used to present vignettes of famous and infamous characters and events from movies, horror and ghost stories, and sometimes real life, with live actors portraying the stars of the scene. Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Wolf Man and Lizzie Borden were frequent guest stars. The US Sun has contacted Six Flags for comment. He added that some of the youths at the park had come to hear a concert by the rock and roll group Golden Earring. A number of association members and other organizations wrote to then-NFPA President Robert Grant expressing their concern about Schirmers reported remarks. Online exclusive: Haunted Castle (Six Flags Great Adventure), Effects on the park and similar attractions, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), "Jury Acquits Companies In Great Adventure Fires", "Settlement Reached In Suit By Great Adventure Victim's Family", "Fire at the Haunted Castle (excerpted from, "GREAT ADVENTURE'S SISTER PARK INSTALLED SPRINKLERS", "SPRINKLERS NOT SOUGHT, ATTRACTION BUILDER SAYS", "OFFICIAL RECALLS CODE VIOLATIONS AT THEME PARK", "CAUSE SOUGHT IN BLAZE FATAL TO 8 AT JERSEY PARK'S HAUNTED CASTLE", "WORKER AT GREAT ADVENTURE CITES DELAY IN REPORTING FIRE", "GIRL TELLS COURT ABOUT ESCAPING FUN HOUSE FIRE", "8 PEOPLE KILLED, 7 HURT IN BLAZE AT THEME PARK", "FUN HOUSE NEVER INSPECTED, TOWN FIRE INSPECTOR TESTIFIES", "FIRE SAFETY WAS WEAK AT 6 FLAGS, EXPERT SAYS", "PARK-FIRE INQUIRY FINDS THE SYSTEM FELL SHORT", "REPORT IN JERSEY FINDS PARK FIRE WAS AVOIDABLE", "The Uniform Construction Code (NJAC 5:23)", "AMUSEMENT PARK OWNERS GO ON TRIAL FOR FIRE THAT KILLED 8", "HAUNTED CASTLE MANAGER SAYS HE REPORTED PERILS", "3 EX-PARK AIDES SAY SAFETY PLEAS WENT UNHEEDED", "BADEN CRITICIZES INQUIRY BY JERSEY INTO PARK FIRE", "CLOSING STATEMENTS TO JURORS ARE MADE IN PARK FIRE TRIAL", "FUN HOUSE PATROL CALLED A SUBSTITUTE FOR ALARMS", "FIRE SAFETY OFFICIAL CRITICIZED FOR TESTIMONY ON FATAL JERSEY BLAZE", "FOREMAN OF JURY BLAMES TOWN FOR SIX FLAGS FIRE", "GREAT ADVENTURE JUROR ABSOLVES TOWNSHIP IN FIRE", "PARENTS SEEK $2.6 BILLION IN SUITS OVER DEATHS OF 4 IN BLAZE AT PARK", "FAMILY SETTLES FOR $750,000 IN GREAT ADVENTURE FIRE", "JERSEY FIRE PANEL TO SUGGEST AMUSEMENT-PARK IMPROVEMENTS", "PROSECUTOR FACING LEGAL TEAM IN TRIAL ON PARK FIRE", "New video recounts story of '84 Great Adventure fire", Smith's Haunted Castle documentary at YouTube, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Haunted_Castle_(Six_Flags_Great_Adventure)&oldid=1145530702, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 19 March 2023, at 16:48. The attraction consisted of 14 aluminum trailers with a facade that gave it the haunted-house appearance. Bottom line: So far, at least, even with all their whiz-bang technology, Fairchild and Casterline cannot provide a definitive answer to the question, Would sprinklers have prevented eight teens from dying in the Haunted Castle in 1984? Its just as difficult to say if Schirmers opinion was wrong. Free resources: He would have turned 18 Friday. reddit This thread is archived . 16688176 - 7 full pages six flags haunted castle fire.edited.docx Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Schirmers contributions to these and many other areas continue to benefit the built environment. "I assisted with the removal of bodies and will never forget the smell of burning tires and plastic," McDonnell said. When the buses left the park at midnight, he conducted a head count. [3], The purpose of the Haunted Castle walk-through dark ride was to entertain its customers by frightening them. The Castles wood-frame faade featured arches and turrets, covered with sprayed and painted urethane foam, where visitors entered and exited. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The fire broke out shortly before 6:30 p.m., when a 14-year-old boy who was using a lighter to find his way through the attraction accidentally walked into the polyurethane foam padding covering a wall and set it on fire. To determine the impact of sprinkler control on life safety, Fleming again referred to test data and concluded that, if flashover had been prevented, life-threatening conditions would not have developed in areas remote from the fire, such as those where the eight fatalities had been discovered. ''Hey, Sammy,'' he called to his friend, Samuel Valentine, ''have a good time. Roughly 30 people were in the attraction when the fire began. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. The simulation is run, and the algorithms in the model account for the various fire effectshydrodynamic, combustion, heat conduction, suppression, detection, and morethat influence each other. . [citation needed], Originally known as the Haunted House, the attraction was constructed of four aluminum semi-trailers when it opened in 1978. Fleming was unable to model fire suppression, extinguishment, or control, but he did have a tool called DETACT-QSthe acronym refers to detector activationwhich computes heat detector (sprinkler) activation time based on the sprinkler response time index, temperature rating, and spacing, in concert with the heat release rate (HRR) and ceiling height. The place was just a disaster waiting to happen.. The 17-year-old junior watched his classmates at Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn board the buses to the New Jersey park on Friday morning. Fairchild and Casterline modeled the sprinkler application rates and water distribution patterns directly into FDS, and concurred that sprinklers would have applied water at a sufficient rate and in a distribution pattern that would have suppressed the fire. A medieval-styled faade was built for the Haunted Castle on the site of the Alpen Blitz across from the Muzik Express. The Mystery and Controversy Surrounding the Fire at the Haunted Castle[42] was produced in 2003 by Peter James Smith, a long-time patron of the Haunted Castle. 8 PEOPLE KILLED, 7 HURT IN BLAZE AT THEME PARK, https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/12/nyregion/8-people-killed-7-hurt-in-blaze-at-theme-park.html. [citation needed], The Haunted House attraction had a gatekeeper stationed outside with a doorkeeper admitting visitors, while three or four monsters inside occupied various scenes or wandered around surprising and frightening groups of visitors. When the time came to look at colleges and figure out what he might want to study, he chose the fire protection engineering technology program at Delaware Technical Community College. This is the RAW & UNCUT FOOTAGE of the RUBBLE of the pernicious and deadly fire at the HAUNTED CASTLE AT SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE. The answers lie somewhere in shades of gray. A makeshift plywood wall six feet high hid the rubble yesterday. For more information, please see our Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey - The World's Ultimate Thrill Park Six Flags took it over in late 1977. One parkgoer said: "Thick black smoke was billowing up.. But maybe not even then.. It was acrid, black and heavy and it stunk. ''I'm going to be tongue-tied,'' he said. Immediate implications This tragic event highlighted serious issues for the park itself as well as the Jackson Township fire . As a result, Six Flags has changed a lot since 1984, he said. First, Fleming noted that they assumed an exhaust fan would have taken the heat out of the compartment of origin for the first minute after the fire started until it failed. . [4] The castle lacked a building permit, a certificate of occupancy, fire and smoke detectors, and sprinklers despite repeated recommendations by the park's own safety consultants. *Separate admission required. The interest was due in part to some of the fundamental questions that arose in its aftermathprimarily as part of an ensuing criminal trialand to the surprising answers generated by those questions. Schirmer himself wrote to Grant, stating that his opinion is and has been for many years that automatic sprinklers are the best life safety tools available and that he did not testify regarding detectors that they would not have saved the lives in the Castle., In fact, he wrote, the sense of his testimony was that installation of a dry-pipe automatic sprinkler system using conventional sprinklers in this particular building (with combustible walls and ceiling, the foam mat on the wall, and the ventilation fan at the ceiling) would not have, beyond a reasonable doubt, prevented the fire deaths. Now, the part of the park where the Haunted Castle was located, currently near The Dark Knight ride, has been closed off to the public, according to Smith. Throughout the evening there was confusion about the fire's toll. State Police Maj. Louis Taranto said arson had not been ruled out. [11] The lone survivor of the group was carried to safety by a park employee. An criminal investigation cleared the park of wrongdoing in the blaze, according to local reports. "We work with certified, local fire inspectors who ensure that we are in compliance with all state and national fire codes," he said. Fire at Six-Flags Haunted Castle. New Jersey, 1984 [citation needed], At the end of the 1978 season, the four trailers were taken away by the manufacturer and sent to Six Flags Over Mid-America (now known as Six Flags St. Louis) in Eureka, Missouri. An annotated edition of t. Trial by Fire The one survivor later said they had thought the smoke was part of the amusement. "Our No. "Drawings of the attraction are required, showing entrances/exits, electrical switches, circuit breakers, layout of the visitor path, location of alarm systems and manual pull stations, and the locations of fire extinguishers and telephones," he said. He tried to put the flames out, but failed. Following the Haunted Castle fire, Great Adventure, Inc. and its parent company, Six Flags Corp., were charged by the state of New Jersey with aggravated manslaughter, as were two of the park managers. Suddenly, he saw a flame shoot up into the sky like a Roman candle. We thought it would be interesting to look at this again, considering the improvements in modeling over the past 30 years, says Casterline. [43][44], The film says that two earlier visitors on the day of the fire reported finding an exit door chained shut, but they were not called as witnesses. The work by Fairchild and Casterline is the latest chapter in a saga that began with the tragic deaths of eight young people on a spring evening in 1984.