NFPA Journal - May/June 2019 - 20

Dispatches
Electrical Code®, means of egress with
NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®, and pyrotechnics with NFPA 1126, Standard for
the Use of Pyrotechnics Before a Proximate Audience.
In 2013, Rowe spoke with NFPA Journal for a "Perspectives" interview about
safety on movie and television sets, as
well as on theater stages, in which he
gave an example of how the NEC has
been used on Hollywood sets.
"There was some misinformation
about grounding requirements [on
sets] and the Los Angeles County
Fire Department didn't know how to
enforce it," he said in the interview.
"Inspectors were not uniformly enforcing regulations." So Rowe, LA County
Fire officials, and others got together
to come up with guidelines based on
relevant parts of the NEC, which were
then adopted by the Contract Services
Administration Trust Fund, a nonprofit
that administers training and safety
information to the movie and television industry.
The fact that AHJs in Los Angeles,
the epicenter of the country's film
and television industry, were unclear
on how to enforce the NEC on sets as
recently as six years ago, exposes the
other challenge to protecting these
already-complex areas: AHJs simply
don't have experience with them. "Our
industry is different," Rowe said. "Our
terminology is different. Our hierarchy
of control is different, and can change
from one job to the next."
That's why efforts like the one being
driven by the California Department
of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL
FIRE) are essential. Since 1987, CAL
FIRE has maintained the Office of
the State Fire Marshal Motion Picture
& Entertainment Unit. The unit was
created about five years after three
actors died while filming the Twilight
Zone: The Movie. During the filming
of one scene, a helicopter was flying
above actor Vic Morrow and two child
actors when heat from pyrotechnics
reportedly warped the chopper's blades,
sending it crashing to the ground and
killing the three actors instantly.
"That event sent quite the shockwave
through the motion picture industry,"

20 | NFPA JOURNAL * M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 9

said Ramiro Rodriguez, a deputy state
fire marshal with CAL FIRE, who is
the fifth person to lead the Motion
Picture & Entertainment Unit. "That's
what prompted the state of California
and the motion picture industry to say,
'Someone should have been able to
foresee this.'" At the same time, there
was concern among the movie and
television industry over inconsistent
enforcement of fire safety regulations
on sets, he said, creating the perfect
environment for the establishment of
such a unit.

"A lot of fire safety
professionals have no
idea what they're getting
into, and production
is occurring all over
the country, not just
in Los Angeles and
New York. Each set is
basically a mobile city."

Today, the unit trains and certifies
members of the California fire service-as well as any interested public
safety professional-on fire safety on
sets, Rodriguez said. It accomplishes
this through working closely with the
California Film Commission, local
film commissions, and entertainment
industry insiders, he said. A video from
CAL FIRE-humorously produced
in the style of a blockbuster movie
trailer-shows the training in action,
with flaming stuntmen being extinguished and flame effects being shot
off in a parking lot as a crowd that's
mostly donning firefighter hats and
jackets looks on.
The ultimate goal of the Motion Picture & Entertainment Unit, Rodriguez
said, is to grow the state's pool of qualified motion picture and television set
fire safety officers (FSOs), who serve
as the bridge between production and
fire safety on sets. "The fire safety officer is responsible to prevent and abate

fire and life safety hazards on motion
picture and television sets," he said.
"Whether operating in an approved
production facility or at an approved
production location, it is imperative
for the FSO to work continuously and
collectively with production officials,
including the gaffer responsible for portable power distribution and lighting
on set, the special effects coordinator,
the stunt coordinator, the prop weapons
handler, and, when applicable, the aerial
unit coordinator to ensure public safety
and a safe film production experience."
About a month after the FDNY
report on the Harlem fire was released,
the story again made headlines. This
time, it was because Norton's Class 5
Productions had filed its own lawsuit
against the owner of the building
where the blaze occurred. The suit
alleges negligence on the owner's part
for "failing to maintain the building's
boiler, maintain an operational sprinkler system, install or maintain smoke
detectors or carbon monoxide detectors, and address exposed wiring and
other electrical hazards," according to
an article published April 17 on cinemablend.com, a news source for the
entertainment industry.
In a reversal of what had been previously reported, the article said the
lawsuit also claims "Norton and his
crew had the proper permits from the
FDNY, and were not warned of any
'unsafe or problematic' conditions at
their shooting site." Earlier reportage
implied no permits had been given.
And nor did they need to be, one
article in the Chicago Tribune said,
because filming was occurring on private property.
Regardless of what sparked the blaze
and who may have been at fault, the
most jarring detail from the FDNY
report remains the claim that firefighters didn't know they were responding to
a fire on a movie set. According to Deadline Hollywood, New York City's Office
of Media and Entertainment has said it
will review its permitting process after
the incident "to ensure that the FDNY
will have adequate information about
proposed filming activity to determine if
there are fire safety concerns."
http://www.cinemablend.com http://www.cinemablend.com
NFPA Journal - May/June 2019

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