Episode 23: Six Flags fire of 1984

Part three of our Fire Series. I had never heard of this story!! Check out Heart Starts Pounding podcast who put me onto the case. 

Transcript

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Hey everybody, I'm Shannon, and welcome to the last episode of the Fire series of the They Hid What podcast. On this podcast, I discuss parts of history that have been kept hidden or swept under the rug. In this week's episode, I will be discussing the Six Flags Fire. Let's get into it. I had another topic planned out, but I felt like it was a little outdone. I wasn't thrilled with it, but I was gonna do it anyway. Then I was listening to Kaylin Moore's Heart Starts Pounding podcast, and she did a little compilation over um the summer. I think she called it the Dark Summer series. And one of the bits in there was about a fire at Six Flags theme park in 1984. And you guys, I live there. I have been in this area since forever, and I have never once heard of this fire at Six Flags. Never. I even asked my dad, and he had never heard of it either. So I decided to start snooping around in there and decided to do this one instead. Also, speaking of my dad, shout out because I've had to pick his brain about all the little fire details that I've had to get into on here. You know what an engine versus a ladder is, how many calls need to be made, what each call means. So thanks, Dad. All right, let's get going. The Haunted Castle was originally built in 1978 at the Toms River Haunted House Company as a test. Six Flags wanted to boost attendance using this attraction to see if they could build a larger facility. The castle was built on four aluminum semi-trailers and had a wooden facade to resemble a white two-story castle. Originally, the haunted castle would be open only at night, but due to the popularity of the attraction, it was kept open all day. At the end of the Halloween season, the castle was disassembled and sent to Six Flag Park in Missouri, where it was used from 1979 to 1982. The haunted castle returned to Jackson Township, New Jersey, and a new facade was built for it where the Alpine Blitz used to be. That was an old steel roller coaster. The castle also got some renovations. When you approached it, you would see a tall face of a castle with turrets and towers. To enter, you had to walk across a drawbridge over a moat. Upon going through the entrance archway, you would be directed either left or right. Along the path leading to the attraction, you would see skeletons, popular monsters, and various skulls. Each side of the attraction had a set of eight semi-trailers, with a central trailer controlling the lights and sounds. The trailers were linked by plywood partitions to create a maze. The plywood walls were covered in foam rubber, fabric, and plastic decorations and tar paper to keep things waterproof. Think of it like the letter U. You enter the castle at the bottom of the U, walk a path to the bend, and travel up the sides to the exits at the top. This was a walkthrough attraction and was kept dimly lit for peak spooky factor. The visitor would have to feel their way through the 450 feet of semi-trailer to get to the end. Employees of the park would position themselves throughout the attraction to jump out and scare anyone that walked by. There were a lot of props and mannequins used to fill the space, strobe lights and sound machines for added dramatic effect, and actors to play out famous events like the coming of Dracula, Frankenstein creating his monster, Wolfman howling at the moon, and Lizzie Borden walking around with an axe. On Friday, May 11, 1984, 29 guests went into the haunted castle around 6.30 p.m. It was a mixture of people. Four were on a senior class trip with one recent graduate of the same school in attendance. Two had won a trip to the park after collecting the most Campbell soup labels from their school, and the rest were just friends enjoying a day at the theme park. After entering the castle, a group of nine teenagers decided to hide in a corner and wait to jump out and scare the group that was behind them. Someone in this hidden group hears someone scream, fire, and they saw smoke. A group entering the attraction also heard someone yell fire and started running back towards the entrance. At first it was hard for those inside to tell if the smoke was real or just dramatic effect. But when black smoke started traveling through the trailers, the visitors knew they needed to get out. A few of the teenagers dropped to the floor to get below the smoke, but this meant that they couldn't be seen by anyone standing and were soon trampled. Fourteen guests managed to escape. Seven teenagers were stuck at the end of a hallway, and eight were found in front of a chained and locked closet door. It's assumed that they thought it was an exit. They were actually 25 feet from the fire exit. Jose Carrion, 17, Eric Rodriguez, 18, Lennon Ruiz, 16, Samuel Valentin Jr. 17, and alumni Christopher Harrison, 18, were all on a senior trip from Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn. Joseph Beirud Jr. 17 and Nicola Cayaza 17 met contest winners Tina Ginuvesi, 15, and Suzette Elliott before entering the haunted house. At 6:35 p.m., an employee of the castle notified the Great Adventure Fire Brigade, which is a fire team for the theme park, of the fire. The fire captain saw how heavy the smoke was and told park security to call the Jackson Township police department. The smoke could be seen from the parking lot and fire crews from 11 surrounding communities, 15 fire squads and 300 firefighters in all, responded to the call. The fire was believed to be fed by the air conditioning that was coursing through the attraction. Fire chiefs told news outlets at the time, quote, the fire spread so quickly because of the wind that apparently the victims had no time to escape. By 7.45 p.m., the fire was declared under control, but the park remained open, and a scheduled band performance went on as normal. Gross. Also, the park didn't announce the deaths until 10.45 p.m. No one knew there were victims within the attraction. Upon a walkthrough, the bodies of those lost were believed to be mannequins. The bodies of the victims were found to be burnt beyond recognition. When the school buses left Six Flags that day, there were 33 students that weren't accounted for. Parents were waiting at the school for the arrival of the buses, and each of these waiting parents left with a child. On Saturday morning, the school's principal, Morton Damisk, began calling each of the 33 homes. He found that five students had not returned. Damis told the New York Times, quote, that's when my worst fears became reality. It was decided that the parents and Morton would go back to the park and try and identify the bodies. We drove quickly past Haunted Castle, Morton said. It was still smoking. Using dental records, a pay stub, three class rings, a neck chain, school identification cards, and park passes, the authorities have identified the seven young men and one woman who all died of smoke inhalation. Days later, hundreds of students from the Franklin K. Lane High School walked to St. Thomas the Apostle for a memorial service. Classmates wrote poetry and music. Others designed a mural to cover an indoor handball court to be dedicated to the boys who died in the fire. There are multiple different agencies that a theme park has to answer to. The Six Flag Park in Jackson, New Jersey was no different. First, there's the New Jersey Department of Labor and Industries. This group inspects the safety of the rides. Then, there are the local municipalities that enforce state and local building codes and governs the safety of the electrical systems. The State Department of Community Affairs is responsible for ensuring municipalities enforcing codes. And the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, monitors employee safety. The state panel investigating the fire said that the regulatory system had failed at almost every level and that the haunted castle had been in violation of a dozen state fire codes. The state's uniform construction code required the owners to install smoke detectors and several other safety devices before the castle could be opened. A spokesperson 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. I know what you're thinking. A temporary structure? But how? Simply because the trailers that made up the haunted castle attraction were all on wheels, and that small fact made them temporary. Never mind the fact that the attraction had been in the exact same spot for five years. If it was on wheels, it was temporary. Up until this point, the cause of the fire wasn't known. However, eight days after the tragedy, the Ocean County prosecutor's office claimed that a 13-year-old boy had called the police and said that a 14-year-old boy that he had befriended at the entrance of the castle was using a cigarette lighter to help them see their way through, and that he had accidentally ignited a foam pad on the wall. The prosecutor's office never identified the 14-year-old, but cleared him of any wrongdoing. On September 14, 1984, a grand jury in Tom's River, New Jersey indicted Six Flags Great Adventure and its parent company, Six Flags, for aggravated manslaughter. Some brief definitions. An indictment is a formal charge of a serious crime, and manslaughter is the crime of killing a human being without malice or intention. The indictment read that Six Flags was charged for, quote, recklessly causing the deaths under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life. The indictment also charges two park executives, the general manager at the time of the fire, and his predecessor with manslaughter for reckless conduct in ignoring repeated warnings of safety violations. The trial began on May 29, 1985, and lasted eight weeks. When the Jackson Township fire inspector was called to the stand, they testified that after five years of semi-annual inspections, the fire alarms and sprinkler systems were never installed. Shift managers stated that, quote, 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. They went on to say that their pleas for safety measured had been rejected by management as being too expensive, and that there was a ripped portion of the castle that exposed foam rubber padding. It was also discovered that the park didn't have a building permit, certificate of occupancy, or even smoke detectors for the castle. When a park official got on the stand, he stated that after repeated vandalism of the smoke alarms in 1979, they decided not to reinstall them, and that having an employee continually walk through the attraction was just as good. All of these facts made it very easy for the prosecution to argue that repeated safety warnings went ignored. The defense, of course, had a different take on the situation, and that was arson. They held firm to the claim that the 13-year-old boy made about another boy starting the fire, even though that boy could never be found or even identified. With arson, they argued, no amount of precaution could have saved lives. Two different witnesses for the defense even argued that a sprinkler system wouldn't have been able to make any difference. Also, it was noted that the structure did have emergency lighting, but it would only turn on if the power failed. The jury deliberated for 13 hours and found the defendants not guilty. In an interview after the trial, the jury for person blamed Jackson Township for repeatedly allowing the castle to disobey the fire codes. They also stated that the companies were blameless because they had been told by the township that they didn't need permits or sprinklers. It seems like what it comes down to is this. Six Flags installed the haunted castle as a permanent attraction in their park, but never took the trailers off the wheels. Maybe to make it easier to move around if they wanted to? Since the attraction was on wheels when the fire inspector came around and they had to call it a temporary structure, due to it being on wheels, and thus couldn't write it up for any deficiencies. However, and this is just my speculation, perhaps on year three, when the structure was still there, the same fire inspector should have said, hey, wait a minute, this has been here in the same spot for three years now. You should really install some type of fire protection to it. But they couldn't officially order it since it was still on wheels. This is what I've come to. You can make your own conclusions. There were two park executives that were also charged separately for manslaughter. They avoided trial and jail time by agreeing to enter into an intervention program that allowed them to provide community service, and I'm sure they worked every single one of those hours too. The victims' families filed civil suits of manslaughter and aggravated manslaughter against Six Flags, Bally Manufacturing, who owned Six Flags, and the Castle's builder George Mahana, who also owned the Toms River Haunted House Company. The New York City Board of Education, the state of New Jersey, Ocean County, and Jackson Township were also included in the suits. Seven of the eight families settled out of court for$2.5 million each. The eighth family decided to go to trial and was awarded$750,000. Immediately after the fire, several New Jersey haunted house attractions closed pending fire inspections, which is a little alarming. New Jersey and other states passed new fire safety laws for, quote, dark rides and any structure that intentionally disorients. Park attendance for six flags dropped for the rest of the year, and park officials said pre-fire attendance levels were restored the next year after they reassured the public that the park was made safer by the addition of$5.2 million worth of sprinklers and computerized smoke and heat detectors. However, industry sources were reporting that ensuing poor attendance almost caused the park to close in 1987. Former park president John Fitzgerald said, quote, 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. Our number one priority is the safety of our guests and employees. In the 1988 edition of the National Fire Protection Association 101 Life Safety Code, a new section, quote, special provisions for special amusement buildings, was added. 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. If the building was portable or movable, the sprinkler water supply may be by an approved temporary means. Also, if the amusement building had low lighting levels, the code required that it be equipped with a smoke detection system, the activation of which would sound an alarm at, quote, a constantly attended location on the premises. The actuation of either the smoke detection system or the sprinkler system would cause the illuminations of the means of egress to increase and silence any conflicting or confusing sounds and visuals. So basically, what it's saying is we need our smoke alarm to sound like a smoke alarm. People have to understand it's not part of the attraction, it's not part of the ride. This is serious. That's how they have to make it sound. Which is why smoke alarms today are so obnoxiously loud. As the 30th anniversary approached, a manager and senior associate of fire protection and life safety at Ballinger, Jack Fairchild, decided he wanted to answer the sprinkler question once and for all. Jack was nine at the time of the fire and lived close to Six Flags in Jackson Township. He can remember the effect that the fire had on the community and had a pull towards working in fire safety. Jack chose to study fire protection engineering technology at a technical college in Delaware. Jack wanted to use computer imaging to reconstruct the haunted castle and study the growth rate of the fire, the potential sprinkler response times, water delivery times, maximum heat release rates, and overall environment of the castle to see if he could answer the sprinkler question. Brad Casterline, a project manager from an engineering firm in Overland Park, Kansas, joined him on this project. So during the trial, Chet Shearmer, the president of Shearmer Engineering Corporation and chair of the NFPA Technical Committee on Automatic Sprinklers, and the NFPA Board of Directors stated, quote, if the sprinkler system does not operate quickly enough, or if the water does not hit high enough on the walls, you cannot control the survivability of people in the space of origin. He also told the court, quote, 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 the space of origin. A representative from NFPA that testified for the prosecution had said that sprinklers or smoke alarms might have allowed the fire to be detected earlier and thus give the victims time to escape. After the verdict, the board of the National Fire Sprinkler Association, or NFSA, asked Russell Fleming to prepare an analysis of the potential sprinkler performance going off of all the testimony and evidence given at the trial. Fleming found three errors that he supposes the expert made. Error number one, the experts claimed that an exhaust fan would have only been able to remove heat from the castle for the first minute. Error number two, the defense assumed it would take a full minute for water to reach the sprinklers in the system once opened. And error number three, the defense assumed that standard sprinklers would have responded too slowly and would not have. Have moved the water enough to stop the fire from spreading. In his final report, Analysis of Potential Fire Sprinkler Performance in the Great Adventure Fire, Fleming concluded that, quote, although hazardous conditions would likely have developed within the Room of Origin itself prior to water delivery, hazardous conditions would not have developed outside the Room of Origins, and safe egress from the facility would likely have been maintained. In short, it is likely that the loss of life would have been prevented. Fast forward back to Jack and Brad's experiment, Jack noted that Russell had laid the groundwork for a great comparison. He beat the path, and we retraced his steps. The two used the fire dynamics simulator software, which allowed them to account for the various what's called fire effects, which influence each other. These include hydrodynamics, combustion, heat conduction, suppression, and detection. After a lot of testing and running over Russell's original data, Jack and Brad cannot answer the question definitively: would sprinklers have saved the lives of the eight haunted castle victims? That's all for this story. Come back next week to see what else has been hidden.