The building my school was in was sold. The new owners had other plans, so off I was to an office warehouse space. The 1980 haunt was about 1,500 sq. ft. I had to come up with ways to deliver a longer haunt. Our location faced a major roadway. We had the opportunity to make good money, if we could deliver a good show.
The building had a front entrance and a back rolling door. The concept of emergency exits was not to present itself to me till 1986. Passageways in the haunt were two feet wide. And then there was the crawling maze. On your hands and knees, down two foot square tunnels, with us on top banging, yelling and squirting you with water. The tunnel path was 64 feet long. Built of sheet rock, 2x2s and nails (I had yet to discover the wonders of screws) it almost lasted the season. It did require major repairs before the last weekend. Carpet tubes returned, puppets popping out of all sorts of places, a witch's cauldron and witches, too. The grand finale was a large box. Customers walked up a ramp, ducked down and entered a four-foot square box, eight feet long. It had 100-watt sound system and two woofers. The sound track was the classic "buried alive", being sold everywhere back then. We closed the door behind them, turned out the lights, turned on the music, then released the lock and the entire box pivoted back and forth like a see saw. We would bang them around several times (more if the line was short) then let them out the backside. As they exited the box, they could see the exit to outside. As they stepped forward (thinking they were through) a very large spider dropped on top of them at the doorway of the exit. Very effective. Well, actually this was another good year, almost. We covered the expense of building the haunt, purchasing some new props, had a cast party and still had a pocket full of money to play with. However, I learned the first of many lessons this year. We masked everything with black plastic (yes, the kind we have all learned not to use). Stapled it in place, OOPS, stapes? Yes staples. Customers would bump into, fall all over and pull down the plastic. When it would come down, it brought with it staples. Some staples remained partially in the wood, leaving a sharp pointy thing armed to attack an unsuspecting customer. As fate would have it the injury was to a little girl being carried by her dad. The staple cut across her right hand and confused us. We were not ready for customer injuries. They could not receive any help till they made it all the way to the box. At this time we realized the reason for their shouts of 'help'. It was clearly our fault and I agreed to pay the emergency room fee. He took her down the road and was back in less than an hour with a receipt for $98. Ouch. After the accident I closed the haunt down for about ten minutes and found several more staples poised for attack. I removed them. This was the last time I would ever use staples exposed in any of my haunts. That is not to say that I do not use staples, I do. After creating a curtain with taffeta, I cover the stapled side with another board using screws. This was the first of three customer injuries 1980, 1982 and 1988. This event brought to my attention emergency situations. I had never prepared for them. It also focused attention on access to haunt areas. We had no access except through the customer path. It would be several years before I could remedy this problem. But we did prepare emergency response plans. The adults and students that worked the haunt were advised to listen to the customers as they made it down the customer path. Any unusual shouting was to be investigated immediately. This action paid off several days latter when a family got stuck in the tube room. It seems that one of the tubes had come untied and the dangling cord was caught up in a unique hair do. They were caught for only a brief time and they themselves were not in a panic, yet. I was notified and was able to untangle her hair from the cord. It was nothing that they could not have done themselves, except that each was carrying a child that was not willing to be put down. We were able to help them before the problem became serious and they continued through the haunt laughing and screaming. The staple lesson was clear. Second year of operation and it suddenly dawned on me that I was responsible for the safety of my customers. It was my job to create a safe haunt. Somewhere during this revelation the word fire 'snuck' up on me. I noticed the pathetic kitchen fire extinguisher and almost died laughing. Before we opened the next evening I bought two giant chemical extinguishers and more flashlights. We had talks about evacuation and selected a location outside of the building where everyone was to meet in the event of an emergency. People were assigned emergency duties. One to walk through the haunt and make sure that all customers were out, two to standby the fire extinguishers and one to count heads at the meeting place. There was no regulations, guidelines, inspections or anyone to talk to. I learned by visiting other haunts, watching my customers and making mistakes. These lessons I pass on to you.Mad Hatter
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