Edinburgh Fringe Venue Saved From Major Disaster By Fire Alarm System

Edinburgh ‘Fringe’ Festival venue, the Queen's Hall, had a small electrical fire on Wednesday 5th January which was safely extinguished by the Lothian & Borders Fire Brigade.

Smoke was seen billowing from the theatre’s bell tower at around noon by concerned passers-by. The fire alarm system was recently upgraded by Fire Protection Group using a vesda system in the attic. The Fire Detection & Alarm system picked up the smoke that had travelled through a riser at a very early stage and alerted the fire & rescue service before major damage was caused.

The Queens Hall is a Victorian Theatre in which the roof and theatre have substantial timber structure. Around 20 Lothian and Borders firefighters attended the scene and managed to extinguish the fire using hand held extinguishers.

A spokesman for the Queen's Hall told the Edinburgh Evening News : "The fire started in the power supply for our back-up emergency lighting system, which is situated in an electrical cabinet on the first floor.

"There was minor smoke damage to the cabinet, but the rest of the building is unaffected. We're currently assessing the damage with our electrical engineers and there are no plans to cancel any concert at the hall."

He added: "The smoke that came out of the bell tower was due to the ventilation channels in the building. The tower itself was not involved in the fire in any way."

This incident re-emphasises the importance of working fire alarms and an example of how well maintained FD&A systems can work to prevent a major disaster.

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