Haunters seek safe houses

By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal Staff Writer | Tuesday, October 25, 2005

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RAPID CITY — You might be scared to death, but you will get out alive.

While the folks who create haunted houses are trying hard to make you scream, local fire prevention officials are making sure people pass safely through the houses’ horrors.

“We’re taking people through a scary experience, but they’re going to come out safe,” said Darla Drew Lerdal of Dahl Arts Center, who is helping with KSKY Dahl-O-Ween Haunted House that opens Friday off Cambell Street. “The cobwebs even have to be non-flammable.”

That was news to the Dahl-O-Ween crew. KSKY’s “Queen Sarah” Anderson has created haunted houses before in the area, but never in Rapid City, where they are required to meet “special amusement” requirements.

As a result, Dahl-O-Ween organizers had to scramble to install smoke detectors and fire alarms. They replaced sheets of black construction plastic with special-ordered non-flammable plastic. Anderson and her husband, Robert, built tombstones and other props from sheetrock when they learned that foam props weren’t allowed.

Fortunately, the building already had a sprinkler system, which is another city requirement. Still, “(we’ve spent) $2,000 before we open the doors,” Drew Lerdal said Monday.

She considered canceling the event, which is a fundraiser for Dahl Arts Center’s children’s arts programs. But the Andersons had spent countless hours planning, and Drew Lerdal said she had worked to get city approval for everything down to the parking because it’s a worthy cause and she hated to disappoint local teens.

“Thirteen- and 14-year-olds don’t have much to do in this town,” she said. “And then, we all complain when they throw eggs and stuff.”

Lt. Dan Ladenburger of the Rapid City fire department spent part of Monday testing the Dahl-O-Ween’s fire alarms. He said Halloween is the busiest time for “special amusements.”

Fire department personnel try to inspect all venues within city limits, Ladenburger said, including the booths at the City-Wide Safe Halloween Carnival at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. They once even inspected a backyard haunted house that was advertised to the public.

Ladenburger said city officials review construction materials and haunted house plans to make sure all patrons can get out safely should a fire start.

City officials do not inspect Terror in the Dark, the large haunted house across Cambell Street from the Dahl-O-Ween on Central States Fairgrounds. That is considered county property, so Pennington County fire administrator Denny Gorton reviews Terror.

“The city requires that a haunted house be in a fully fire-sprinkled building with a fire-alarm system,” Gorton said. “We (the county) are not requiring them at this time to have that in a fully-sprinkled building. We require that the materials, any plastic or anything like that, has to meet fire code.”

The county also requires Terror in the Dark to have fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and emergency exits for each room, plus an evacuation plan and fire drills for volunteers. Gorton does a walk-through before the house opens.

“There are always some things,” he said. For example, “I asked them to change a couple of the exit doors on the haunted house, the way they swing, so it would be less confusing to someone if they had to exit.”

Coordinator Mary Schwarzenberg said volunteers in each room are responsible for ushering patrons in that room to an exit in case of emergency.

Haunted houses are loud places, with a lot of sound effects and screaming. “We have to be able to alert one another if something’s up in a room,” she said. “We’ve come up with different ways.”

Air horns are one way. Terror in the Dark volunteers also use radio headsets to communicate. Some provide roaming security, monitoring patrons to make sure no one lights a match or sparks a lighter. Anyone who does is immediately removed from the building, Schwarzenberg said.

Security workers also monitor questionable groups. “They’ll never know they’re being followed, but we keep an eye on them,” she said. Terror in the Dark opens at 7 p.m., Wednesday through Monday.

Rapid City police cadets will provide security for Dahl-O-Ween, which runs from 6 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday at the old Manor House building, 1501 Centre St., east of Cambell Street near the fairgrounds. Admission is $5.

Dahl-O-Ween will have less blood and gore than some haunted houses — Anderson calls it “theater of the mind”—but a lot of scary stuff. Children younger than 13 will not be admitted. Guides will lead patrons through a gantlet of live characters, video effects, and plenty of surprises.

“We aren’t talking about them because we don’t want to spoil the surprise, but we have some things never seen in Rapid City before,” Drew Lerdal said.

Most of those surprises are features dreamed up by Sarah Anderson and built by her husband, Robert, a professional painter whom Sarah describes as “an absolute genius.” Somewhat surprisingly, Sarah herself prefers being the “spooker” rather than the “spookee.”

“I hate haunted houses,” she admitted. It has been several years since she last went through one with her two teen-agers. “I screamed so much that I embarrassed myself.”

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com