The Partnership that Changed the Way the World Looked at Commercial Security

December 12, 2008 at 12:27 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags: Chicago, commercial security, panic bar, The Iroquois Theater

PART ONE: The Iroquois Theater Tragedy and How it Inspired One Man

 

The Iroquois Theater, Circa 1903, shortly after it burned inside.

 

 

Commercial security strategies and products have come a long way in the last century.  Prior to the early 20^th century, human safety was a much lower priority for the business owner than protecting his or her own interests, property and inventory.

 

Attitudes began changing, however, as the 1900′s dawned.  Innovators began to seek ways to balance protection of business, property and financial welfare with protection of the very people who made business possible: customers.  One of those innovators was Carl Prinzler, though he didn’t necessarily set out to become an inventor.  Prinzler literally changed the world through the circumstances of one particular event, a tragedy of human loss that he just couldn’t shake.

 

Prinzler worked as a manager for the Vonnegut Hardware Company in Indianapolis, Indiana.  It was in 1903 that Prinzler had been scheduled to attend a showing of the musical “Mr. Bluebeard” at the newly-opened Iroquois Theater in Chicago.  A last minute meeting caused Prinzler to have to miss the live performance, a twist of fate that would haunt him for years to follow.

 

The Iroquois Theater was, in fact, a marvel of the latest in building technology.  Its architectural exterior design was a marvel to behold, with its stone columnades and expanse of glass adorned with festive wreaths added for its holiday season grand opening.  The theater was advertised on its playbills as “Absolutely Fireproof.” This may have been in deference to nervous Chicagoans who still remembered the deadly Great Chicago Fire some thirty years prior.

 

Marvel or not, corners were cut when it came to the building’s final phase of construction.  Originally slated to open in the late spring of 1904, anxious theater owners pressured contractors to rush the work.  They hoped to take advantage of holiday spenders and visitors to the Chicago area by opening at Christmas time. 

 

It was December 30, just five days after Christmas and 37 days after the “fireproof” theater was opened that Prinzler missed that scheduled performance of “Mr. Bluebeard.”  Had he not been called away, he would have been one of some 2,000 patrons who attended the theater that day, despite the fact that the theater had a seating capacity of just over 1700. 

 

It was during the second act that a spotlight shorted, sending sparks into a nearby curtain in the fly gallery.  The curtain ignited immediately and quickly spread throughout the fly gallery, causing hanging backdrops to burst into flames as they hung from the ceiling.

 

Confused audience members began to murmur and fidget, some believing the glow from backstage was simply special effects, while others realized that disaster was imminent.  A series of mistakes and oversights by theater owners and staff led to rapid spread of the fire from backstage to the seating area. 

 

Patrons clambered over one another to exit the burning building, only to find that most doors had been locked.  Other exits had been gated shut.  Because of the rush to open the theater, most of the building’s fire exits were incomplete.  Some tried to use them anyway ended up plummeting to their deaths in the alleys below.

 

The entire theater was consumed within minutes.  While some patrons managed to escape by kicking down doors or gates, 602 people perished in the blaze for lack of an escape route.  The Iroquois Theater fire claimed more than twice as many lives as the Great Chicago Fire.  It remains, in fact, the deadliest single-building fire in U.S. history.

 

Upon hearing of the fire and its grim death toll, Carl Prinzler was nearly overcome with grief and the heavy weight of the knowledge that he barely escaped his own death.  Prinzler was sickened to learn of the many mistakes and oversights by owners and building workers, along with their blatant disregard for human safety and life itself.

 

This devastating event deeply impacted Prinzler, an average salesman and father.  It motivated him to act on his experience with hardware and business to look for a way to prevent such a tragedy from ever taking another human life.

 

Next week

PART 2: Prinzler’s Panic Bar Revolutionizes Commercial Security