Attached to its exterior were painted turrets and towers of plywood on wooden frames intended to emulate a medieval faade. Fleming determined sprinkler discharge densities, which Fairchild and Casterline confirmed. [4][40], Park attendance at Six Flags Great Adventure fell sharply for the rest of the year, finishing fifteen percent below the $3.3 million for the year preceding. Six Flags: Great Adventure - 1984 haunted house fire : r/newjersey - Reddit Schirmer based his opinion on assumptions about the way the fire developed and the results of previous fire testing. During peak attendance times both sides of the attraction would be in use, and thousands of visitors would come to the Haunted Castle throughout the normal hours of operation. Halloween safety tips from NFPA. The Haunted Castle was a spooky walk-through haunted house (as the . The chairman of the New Jersey Fire Safety Commission, State Senator John Caufield, Democrat of Essex, said yesterday he would order a special public hearing into the fire and the deaths. AFTERMATH OF JERSEY FIRE: SCHOOL MOURNS THE DEAD, https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/14/nyregion/aftermath-of-jersey-fire-school-mourns-the-dead.html. [6][7] The castle's trailers were linked by plywood partitions to create a complex maze. Haunted Castle (Six Flags Great Adventure) - Alchetron.com 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. [4] The lessee was responsible for the construction of a faade that would create the illusion of a haunted house. 8 Killed by Smoky Fire In Park's 'Haunted Castle' [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. May 11, 1984: Eight teenage visitors were trapped and killed when the Haunted Castle attraction was destroyed by fire. [11] The lone survivor of the group was carried to safety by a park employee. It required every special amusement building, such as the Haunted Castle, to be protected throughout by an approved automatic sprinkler system that is properly installed and maintained. Years later, while reading about fire modeling, Fairchild stumbled across Flemings report. 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. Great Adventure Inc. and its parent company, the Six Flags Corporation of Chicago, are on trial on charges of aggravated manslaughter. [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 chairman of the New Jersey Fire Safety. 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. ''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. In their analysis, activation time depended in part on the properties of the foam and plywood, such as their density, hydration levels, the surface area of the foam, the wood species of the plywood, and more. Strobe lights gave glances of the grim scene. David Van Arsdale, a fire inspector at the scene, said the eight bodies were found in the rear of the building - a long, corridor-like maze. Frank McDonnell, a fire official for Jackson's Bureau of Fire Safety, was a 22-year-old volunteer for Jackson Fire Company 1 back in 1984. Fairchild and Casterline modeled the exhaust fan directly into FDS. 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. . Fright Fest is back at The Great Escape | October 2 - Six Flags A fire is a complex reaction where one variable can have a great influence on another. Because the fire was located on a wall, DETACT increased the heat release rate by a factor of two. But maybe not even then.. Peter Berkery said the building ''had spires and turrets and arches and walls that looked like they were made of yellow stucco.''. Yesterday at the park was Family Christian Day, and as thousands attended the amusements, the investigators remained puzzled about what had caused the blaze. 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. The trial jury found the defendants not guilty of criminal charges;[2] however, Six Flags paid millions in civil damages to victims' families. Various theatrical props and exhibits were in view, including coffins, ghoulish mannequins, hanging spider webs and skeletons. The trailers housed two separate Haunted Castle attractions, mirror images of each other, which operated simultaneously during peak times. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Interviewed after the trial, the jury foreman blamed Jackson Township officials for repeatedly allowing the Castle to exploit flaws in the fire code. An criminal investigation cleared the park of wrongdoing in the blaze, according to local reports. 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. Norma Quintana, Sam's mother, took dental records to the amusement park Saturday and afterward said her son was among the dead. 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. Doorway to Hell (2003) Fan-Made Documentary about the Six Flags Great Adventure Haunted Castle Fire. Fleming used a computer program developed by Factory Mutual to determine dry-pipe valve trip time, which Fairchild and Casterline also accomplished with SprinkFDT. The first sprinkler analysis THE Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey was just like any other theme park on a spring day in 1984. Mr. Damesek called the families yesterday morning to offer sympathy. Strobe lights and eerie sounds completed the scene. The US Sun has contacted Six Flags for comment. Dare to enter the Halloween event of the season, featuring family-friendly attractions during the day.and thrills once the sun goes down. Six Flags Great Adventure Haunted Castle fire changed safety forever 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. Fanned by the building's air conditioning, it spread rapidly due to the use of flammable building materials. Six Flags Great Adventure is the world's largest theme park with world-class coasters, Safari Off Road Adventure, three kids' areas and events like Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park. When the buses left the park at midnight, he conducted a head count. The park built a wooden front that resembled a white, two-story house with forest green shingles and shutters, contained by a wrought-iron fence and gates, and accentuated with stucco planters. 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 added that some of the youths at the park had come to hear a concert by the rock and roll group Golden Earring. AFTERMATH OF JERSEY FIRE: SCHOOL MOURNS THE DEAD - New York Times "At first the smoke was coming out of the top, and then it began to pour out of the haunted house front door. Great Escape . They were among the eight teen- agers who died when fire devoured the Haunted Castle attraction, a narrow, dimly lighted maze of 17 aluminum trailers in the park. (For more on code changes brought about by the Haunted Castle fire, visit nfpa.org/hauntedcastle.). [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". 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. 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. In past years, the park unleashed the following attractions: 2019 - Cyborg Hyper Drive: A spinning ride in the dark with special effects. ''It was still smoking.''. Most of the suits were settled out of court, however, and Fleming does not know if the report played any role in negotiations. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Along with computing capabilities immensely more powerful than Flemings, the pair was able to utilize a far more advanced modeling tool known as the fire dynamics simulator (FDS), software that could account for the interaction of numerous fire phenomena. ''That's when my mind began wondering if something was wrong,'' Mr. Damesek said. The Haunted Castle was a popular attraction at Six Flags. [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. Fourteen, including four park employees, managed to escape. For example, Haunted Castle was not sprinklered, and the question arose over whether lives would have been saved had a sprinkler system been installed. David Barriera changed his mind at the last minute about going on his school trip to the Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park. See Holiday In The Park Dates . The prosecution called as witnesses fire-prevention consultants who had inspected the castle, and who had recommended the installation of sprinklers or smoke alarms. The fire and its aftermath This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. [3], The purpose of the Haunted Castle walk-through dark ride was to entertain its customers by frightening them. Six Flags Great Adventure. Some mothers were crying. The New Jersey Uniform Fire Code also requires a certificate of occupancy be obtained before certain attractions are opened to the public. Schirmer also told the court that smoke and heat detectors would not have been of any particular value in this building. (For more on Schirmers testimony and NFPAs reaction, visit the story online at nfpa.org/hauntedcastle.). By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Finally, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for monitoring employee safety. 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. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. It consisted of a series of darkened, convoluted passages meant to disorient visitors and was populated with displaysrat lady, hunchback, the spider room, and so onintended to scare them. Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Wolf Man and Lizzie Borden were frequent guest stars. The Six Flags Haunted Castle Disaster | A Short Documentary - YouTube He said seven of the dead were in one group about 25 feet from a fire exit. Haunted Castle actually consisted of two separate attractions, mirror images of each other (depicted here in blue and red), connected by a control room. Five of those killed Jose Carrion Jr., Eric Rodriguez, Lenny Ruiz, Samuel Valentin Jr. and Christopher Harrison, had been students at Franklin K. Lane High School. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [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. The catastrophe occurred in 1984, at the Haunted Castle attraction at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. A postcard of Haunted Castle, a popular attraction at Six Flags Adventure Park in New Jersey. Thirty years ago, a day of fun turned into a day of terror and tragedy. Families and friends had gathered to have fun alongside thrillseekers trying out the latest rides. 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. The boy told the police that he had been befriended by a fourteen-year-old boy at the castle's entrance. Today marks the 30th anniversary of the fire that took the lives of eight teenagers trapped inside the Haunted Castle attraction on May 11, 1984. [17], Eight days after the fire, a statement by the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said a thirteen-year-old boy had called the police after hearing radio reports that investigators were looking for witnesses. 10 Oct 1966 - 11 May 1984. 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 park's Haunted Castle horror attraction was consumed by flames and left eight people dead all teenagers and seven more injured. At 6:30 p.m., the eight teens were among the 30 to 40 people inside the Haunted Castle when a 14-year-old boy from Pennsylvania flicked open a lighter. comments sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A . He would have turned 18 Friday. Its entire structure went up in flames when a foam padcaught alight, burning for more than an hour. Goodbye Fright Fest, hello Hallowfest. He died last year in North Carolina at the age of 84. According to The New York Times, the indictment charged the companies with reckless conduct amounting to extreme indifference to human life for failing to take adequate fire prevention measures., At the trial, Chet Schirmer, president of Schirmer Engineering Corporation and chair of both the NFPA Technical Committee on Automatic Sprinklers and the NFPA Board of Directors, along with Rolf Jensen, president of Rolf Jensen and Associates, appeared as defense witnesses. The answers lie somewhere in shades of gray.
