A school I was working out rented out as a location. The lighting crew followed their standard protocols, power all lights with the generator so when the Location Manager orders the power down they know the lights are off. The wardrobe crew on the other hand decided to move one of the lights for their convenience and plugged it into the building power supply. Someone else had moved a garment rack into range of the light.
About 3am the fire alarm went off. One of the elderly nuns was sleeping in her room on the top level of the building, was carried out by a firefighter.
The school was a converted English Tutor Mansion, had a grand entrance with hand carved mahogany everywhere. The film company hired a crew of like 30 cleaners that were scrubbing the smoke out of the carvings with toothbrushes.
This is why film electricians are very strict about nobody besides them plugging / unplugging anything. The best boy or genny operator is always balancing loads and tracking power usage, especially when house power is in play.
Why is it always the wardrobe department? Years ago I worked as local crew at The Mayflower in Southampton (UK). We had to evacuate during the show one night because wardrobe had a toaster they weren't meant to have, and managed to set fire to some costumes.
I was quite impressed the with the evacuation procedures - almost 3000 people outside in under 3 minutes!
Would you mind specifying which school this was? I'm curious because of your description (presumably that is English Tudor Mansion) of the architecture.
Right'o! A relative of mine whose school was formerly an English Tudor mansion related to me a fire he witnessed, and it occurred to me that it would not be impossible for this to be the same event.
About 3am the fire alarm went off. One of the elderly nuns was sleeping in her room on the top level of the building, was carried out by a firefighter.
The school was a converted English Tutor Mansion, had a grand entrance with hand carved mahogany everywhere. The film company hired a crew of like 30 cleaners that were scrubbing the smoke out of the carvings with toothbrushes.