Great Escape . Code changes prompted by the Haunted Castle fire were far-reaching, Despite the controversy around some of the trial testimony and the subsequent analysis of the fire, the Haunted Castle incident prompted several changes to, Read more about code changes prompted by the Haunted Castle fire, The Haunted Castle fire prompted several important changes to. [43], Smith also says that diagrams[6] of the castle and its exits used in the trial were inaccurate, and did not show a metal fence erected to protect actors from hostile guests, something that would have made escape more difficult, and was found at the scene. As Low As $14.99 Buy Now 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.. A medieval-styled faade was built for the Haunted Castle on the site of the Alpen Blitz across from the Muzik Express. 1 A catastrophic fire in the Haunted Castle killed eight teens in 1984 Credit: MYK STREJA / WIKIPEDIA 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. Schirmer based his opinion on assumptions about the way the fire developed and the results of previous fire testing. Plot info: Great Valley, Section 15, Grave 4279. They further testified that their pleas for safety precautions had been rejected by management as too expensive. Read the original NFPA investigation report on the Haunted Castle fire. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. [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. Using dental records, a pay stub, three class rings, a neckchain, school identification cards and park passes, the authorities have identified the seven young men and one woman, who all died of smoke inhalation. 11, 1984 fire in the "Haunted Castle" at the Six Flags Great Adventure Park in New Jersey, which . A place for forensic students, medical examiners, morticians and other morbidly interested individuals to respectfully discuss content relevant to a crime scene. ''At first the smoke was coming out of the top, and then it began to pour out of the haunted house front door.''. TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) _ A jury acquitted Great Adventure amusement park and its parent company, Six Flags Corp., of manslaughter and aggravated manslaughter Saturday in the fire deaths of eight teen-agers in a haunted house. He said the older youth used a cigarette lighter to find his way down a long corridor that was dark because of a malfunctioning strobe light, and he eventually bumped into and ignited a foam-rubber wall pad. This is the RAW & UNCUT FOOTAGE of the RUBBLE of the pernicious and deadly fire at the HAUNTED CASTLE AT SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE. But maybe not even then.. The Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure was a haunted attraction at Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Predicting sprinkler activation times is highly dependent on fire growth rate, which DETACT has no ability to model, Fairchild says. In past years, the park unleashed the following attractions: 2019 - Cyborg Hyper Drive: A spinning ride in the dark with special effects. As a result, Six Flags has changed a lot since 1984, he said. A Castle employee notified the Great Adventure Fire Brigade at 6:35 p.m. En route, the fire captain noticed the heavy smoke and told park security to notify the Jackson Township Police Department and start implementing the parks mutual aid plan. "We work with certified, local fire inspectors who ensure that we are in compliance with all state and national fire codes," he said. Because of its unexpected success, it was decided instead to extend the lease and add it to the list of permanent attractions. We were hoping to find a smoking gun, but there doesnt appear to be one. 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. [3], The purpose of the Haunted Castle walk-through dark ride was to entertain its customers by frightening them. According to court testimony from 14-year-old Joey Iraca, a boy had accidentally set the fire by touching a lighter to the wall mat in the Haunted Castle. 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. Great Escape Lake George, NY. However, another defense witness said there were no burn patterns or other evidence of an accelerant. But workers sifting through the tangle of melted metal scattered with ghoulish mannequins found a gold school ring engraved with a name: Sam Val. He added that some of the youths at the park had come to hear a concert by the rock and roll group Golden Earring. 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 fire brigade, according to McDonnell. 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 four trailers came from the Toms River Haunted House Company, owned by George Mahana, with scenes preinstalled. New York City Board of Education, the State of New Jersey, Ocean County and Jackson Township were also included in the various suits. According to the testimony of Joseph Iraca,. School Rings in Rubble. Admission is free with valid Pass or Membership. To help create the right mood, creepy music was played over exterior speakers. Interviewed after the trial, the jury foreman blamed Jackson Township officials for repeatedly allowing the Castle to exploit flaws in the fire code. Six Flags Darien Lake Buffalo, NY. Some mothers were crying. Hurricane Harbor New Jersey. But each parent left with a child. May 11, 1984: Eight teenage visitors were trapped and killed when the Haunted Castle attraction was destroyed by fire. Spooky + Safe It includes walk-through haunted mazes, scare zones, shows, and . We were planning a big party, and most of the discussion was about the appropriateness of having a celebration, he says. One expert told the court that, in his opinion, sprinklers would have made no difference in the loss of lifean otherwise predictable observation on behalf of the defense, except that it was made by the chair of the NFPA Technical Committee on Automatic Sprinklers, who at the time also happened to be the chair of NFPAs Board of Directors. Fanned by the building's air conditioning, it spread rapidly due to the use of flammable building materials. The criminal trial began in New Jersey Superior Court in Toms River on May 29, 1985. He noted that this assumed that the delay was based on the traditional maximum time of water delivery in a test simulating a single sprinkler opening, not that the time of water delivery would have been reduced considerably when multiple sprinklers open, as they would have given the rapid growth of the Haunted Castle fire. [32], The families of four of the victims filed civil suits against Bally Manufacturing, the owner of Six Flags; Six Flags Great Adventure; and the Castle's builder, George Mahana, the owner of Toms River Haunted House Company, charging manslaughter and aggravated manslaughter. Exterior decorations included plastic monsters, skulls and other features meant to create a frightening atmosphere. Next door, Hurricane Harbor water park features 25 thrill slides, massive wave pool, lazy river and water play areas. The materials used on the walls included foam rubber, various fabrics and plastics, plywood and tar paper. A hotline number - (201) 928-2000 - was set up at the popular amusement park to answer questions about the blaze and the victims. [4] The lessee was responsible for the construction of a faade that would create the illusion of a haunted house. On May 11, 1984, smoke filled the haunted castle as actors dressed as butchers and hunchbacks corralled patrons out of the burning building. Six Flags Great Adventure is home to 14 world-class coasters, thrilling family rides and a 350-acre drive-thru safari right next door. The US Sun has contacted Six Flags for comment. 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. Neither did four of his fellow students. 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. The identities and ages of the dead were not immediately known. To account for the exhaust fan in the area of origin, the heat release rate curve Fleming entered into DETACT assumed all of the heat was removed up to 100 seconds into the fire. The committee found that Schirmer did not recognize at the time he personally accepted this engagement as an expert witness that his position as chairman of the Board of NFPA, when juxtaposed with his views in this case as an expert, represented a potentially sensational media event. At an NFPA annual meeting, a motion was made at the opening general session to remove Schirmer as chair of the Board of Directors, but the motion failed. Four months after the 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 park managers. The victims were believed to be teen-age visitors at the park - Six Flags Great Adventure - according to the Jackson Police Commissioner, Richard Borys. Six Flags New England did not open at all in 2020. . Both jurors held the two companies blameless because they had been told by township officials that they needed no permit or sprinklers. Glenn Vallach, a spokesman for the park, said no new evidence had been found. The tragedy - one the worst theme disasters ever - unfolded on May 11, 1984 when the blaze broke out inside the parks walk through Haunted Castle at around 6:30pm. A catastrophic fire - which saw flames "leaping 100 feet in the air" - killed eight teenagers and injured at least seven more. Fairchild and Casterline modeled the exhaust fan directly into FDS. Thirty-three students were missing. [4] A single trailer was placed in the middle of the configuration for use as a control room,[5][6] from which the lights, sounds, and other effects were managed; and for changing rooms for the young men and women who acted the parts of the monsters and ghouls present on the tour. Flashover occurred three and a half minutes after the fire began, according to the investigation report, and soon the entire attraction was engulfed in flames. [21] Shift managers called to testify stated that "none of the exit lights were working, bulbs were missing from other lights and there were no fire alarms, despite a history of patrons using matches and cigarette lighters in the dark corridors". The one survivor later said they had thought the smoke was part of the amusement. 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. As a result of the tragedy, the state Legislature passed new fire-safety requirements for amusement buildings such as haunted house that required all structures designed to disorient, reduce vision, present barriers or impede the flow of traffic, be equipped with fire-detection and -suppression systems, as well as various other fire-safety provisions, McDonnell said. The contents fascinated him. [4][10] Approximately 29 guests were in the attraction at the time. Scan this QR code to download the app now. He was joined on the project by Brad Casterline, a project manager at FSC, Inc., an engineering firm in Overland Park, Kansas, who contributed experience in fire and panic egress modeling. Park officials then tried to identify the bodies and did not announce the deaths until about 10:45 P.M. Four of the injured were identified as Patricia Lynch, 18 years old, of Yorktown Heights, N.Y.; Joan Minter, 20, of Brooklyn; Stephanie Peterson, 20, of Brooklyn, and Keith Berkery, 18, of Whippany, N.J., Peter Berkery's brother, who was overcome by smoke in a parking lot next to the Haunted Castle. Fright Fest is back and spookier than ever! He says the youth was seen exiting the attraction as the fire broke out and was later questioned by police but not charged due to lack of evidence. She also said she had seen him heading toward the haunted house. The walls of the "strobe room," where the fire began, were covered with a polyurethane foam padding. I was assigned job as clerk in gift store. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. [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. [12], One witness, whose group entered several minutes after the group who fell victim, later testified that she saw flames coming from around the bend of the attraction's Hunchback display. 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. Years later, while reading about fire modeling, Fairchild stumbled across Flemings report. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. He decided to take the money he had saved and go shopping for new clothes instead. ''I saw security guards running, and parents running and an incredible amount of smoke rising toward the sky,'' said Peter Berkery, a 22-year-old law student who saw the blaze. Schirmers contributions to these and many other areas continue to benefit the built environment. When the buses left the park at midnight, he conducted a head count. "At first the smoke was coming out of the top, and then it began to pour out of the haunted house front door. Six Flags Great Adventure Jackson, NJ. Immediate implications This tragic event highlighted serious issues for the park itself as well as the Jackson Township fire . Brooklyn, Kings County (Brooklyn), New York, USA. Fleming then compared residential test data to confirm that the combustible walls could create a 6-megawatt fire. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. The Haunted Castle was a haunted attraction at Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson Township, New Jersey. [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. New York. A postcard of Haunted Castle, a popular attraction at Six Flags Adventure Park in New Jersey. Criminal charges of aggravated manslaughter were filed against the company, but a Superior Court jury in Toms River returned a not-guilty verdict. 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. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. At about 6 P.M. Friday, he recalled, he was walking with a walkie-talkie, keeping in touch with other school officials. 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. 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. One parkgoer said: "Thick black smoke was billowing up.. Various theatrical props and exhibits were in view, including coffins, ghoulish mannequins, hanging spider webs and skeletons. There were no smoke alarm or sprinkler systems. Code changes prompted by the Haunted Castle fire were far-reaching, In the 1988 edition, a new section, Special Provisions for Special Amusement Buildings, was added. The prosecutor exonerated the older youth, who has never been identified, of any criminal wrongdoing. [33] Seven of the eight families later settled out of court for $2.5 million each; the eighth family chose to go to trial and was awarded $750,000. On May 11, 1984, a fire destroyed the attraction, trapping and killing eight teenagers. '', See the article in its original context from. Free resources: Mr. Van Arsdale said he did not know why the group was not able to escape. He remembers responding to the fire and says he couldn't tell the difference between the prop skeletons and what was real. [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. He said he planned to make an announcement about the deaths to the 4,200 students this morning. 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. (Ocean County authorities reported no physical evidence of chained doors and dismissed such claims.) Using the previously developed data and expert witness testimony to locate the sprinklers, Fleming calculated the dry-pipe sprinkler operating times. "We have invested substantial resources in the safety of our operations and the training of our staff, and now we operate one of the safest family-entertainment facilities in the country," Fitzgerald said. But it did lead to new fire safety procedures, including sprinkler systems. During his tenure as chair of the committee, for example, new standards such as NFPA 13D, Installation of Sprinkler Systems in One- and Two-Family Dwellings and Manufactured Homes, NFPA 13R, Installation of Sprinkler Systems in Residential Occupancies Up To and Including Four Stories in Height, and NFPA 25, Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, came into existence.
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