Tragedy in Escape Room Fire
By: Tone
Here at Trap Door Escape, we’d like to extend our deepest and saddest condolences to the families of those who lost someone in the escape room fire tragedy. As more and more reports surface, it is becoming very clear that this was a direct result of negligent behavior by the owners of the company. These poor girls were locked in a room with no escape ability, resulting in their gruesome deaths.
Fire Safety is Essential
As the owner of Trap Door this disgusts me. The financial resources we have sunk into fire safety over the last three years is now topping $75,000.00. This does not make our experiences look any fancier (matter of fact at times it sacrifices immersion quite a bit), our tech any cooler, or our puzzles any more amazing. Conversely, we invest in fire safety because we care about the safety of our players.
Stop Locking People in Escape Rooms
When Trap Door opened its doors in 2015, one of the criticisms we received was that we were not a real escape room because we did not lock people in. One of the main responses I had was, what if an escape room fire breaks out? The response was often a dismissive, “Oh, well we can put in emergency magnet release buttons.” However, even still many neglected to take the extra safety measure of magnet release buttons.
Personal Experience With Escape Room Fire
Speaking from the personal experience of a small fire that broke out on me during a build, in AM hours, I can tell you this:
The smoke builds so fast, that you cannot find a 2 inch button. I know the layout of my buildings and could have left any time. However, I did not need to because our ceiling drywall was fire rated and the fire could not penetrate it faster than we put it out.
Extra Precautions We Take to Avoid An Escape Room Fire
Our fabrics are treated and even our paint is mixed and rated. In fact, it was tested with a blow torch by town officials! As a result of these precautions, Trap Door had our escape room fire completely out before local fire department even reached the building. Furthermore, the fire never spread beyond the object it originated from.
What Escape Rooms are to Us
To us, escape rooms are hyper realism, experiential entertainment. People are supposed to go inside a theme, and ESCAPE the real world for a specified period of time.
I know many of our competitors follow our Facebook page, and I am begging you if you are reading this,
STOP LOCKING PEOPLE IN!
Stop Locking People In
It is not worth it. I promise you, if an escape room fire breaks out, your players may not even be able to find the wide open door in the smoke, never mind one that is locked.
You are risking peoples lives.
The night that fire happened in my place shook me to the core. We were fully prepared, and as a result, it was handled perfectly, BUT, to this day, I have PTSD of the situation. A fire can break out anywhere, at anytime, for the dumbest reasons imaginable. The industry needs to start thinking like a theme park about guest safety.
Closing Thoughts on Avoiding an Escape Room Fire
I know its expensive, but if many stop thinking of this industry as a cheap entry quick buck, and give it the respect it deserves, maybe we can prevent this from happening in the future.
Trap Door Escape Company
Trap Door Escape Room has 4 locations: 3180 Route 611 in Bartonsville, PA in the Poconos; 60 White St. in Red Bank, NJ; 34A Speedwell Ave. in Morristown, NJ: and 77 Wind Creek Blvd in Bethlehem, PA. The Red Bank location was the first of the 4 locations, opening in the fall of 2015. Morristown followed in the summer of 2017, and Bartonsville opened during the holiday season of 2018. Wind Creek is currently undergoing construction and will be opening in September 2022.
History
The idea came to Tone Purzycki back in 2011 after he wrote a screenplay that developed into a live-streaming game. The game revolved around an actor trapped in a situation and the audience had to solve puzzles to figure out where he was trapped. The “Find Me Event” had more than 1,000 people playing over the course of several hours. After the success of several other streaming events, the idea of an escape room was born.
Location
Each location has different rooms from which to choose. Our Morristown location is home to Day of the Dead, Witch Hunt, and The Greatest Freakshow. In Bartonsville, you’ll find Cure Z, F5 Tornado Escape, Fear the Bogeyman, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, We’re All Mad Here, and Prisoner Z. In Red Bank we currently have Everest – our first 2 story escape room. Ripper of London is also available at this location. Our pirate themed games will soon be open at Wind Creek.
Trap Door Escape Room also offers team building, streaming events, and birthday parties. For more information on any of our games, prices, and locations, explore our website or call 570-234-3366