Pasadena : Parade Float Fire Safety
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How long should it take 70 dancers, musicians and stuntmen to evacuate a Rose Parade float? Try 45 seconds.
A 90-foot-long, 60-foot-high Wells Fargo Bank float depicting a clipper ship pulling up a dock where a stagecoach waits had a fire drill recently and met the time limit as a Fire Department official kept an eye on the clock.
“That’s one of the requirements,” said John Reeder, a Tournament of Roses float entry coordinator. “Fire safety is of prime importance to us.”
Reeder yelled “Fire” to start the drill and members of the San Gabriel Valley Civic Light Opera and musicians from a brass band poured off the float as aerial performers rappelled down ropes from the mast.
Float-building coordinator Charles Randall-Raggio also tested a built-in fire suppression system, unleashing clouds of carbon dioxide vapor from two huge canisters strapped next to the engine to familiarize the performers with the loud hissing sound.
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