Dispute Erupts After Alarms Force N.J. Theatergoers From Their Seats

Did they take too long, or didn’t they?

Firefighters, local police, a movie theater and a news organization found themselves in an unusual dispute after firefighters allegedly needed more than a half-hour to arrive at a possible emergency at a N.J. theater on Monday.

The incident took place at Regal Cinema 18 on Route 1 south in North Brunswick when smoke detectors twice activated, causing alarms that drove theatergoers from their seats and out into the parking lot, according to Tap into East Brunswick.

The second alarm, and accompanying strobe lights, drove customers out of all theaters - including several showing “Star Wars.” The news organization claims a single North Brunswick officer arrived 32 minutes later, followed by two fire trucks six minutes after that.

The news organization quoted anonymous theatergoers who said, among other things, “I’m sure glad that this wasn’t a fire at my house” and “bad times for people in crowds these days,” noting the heightened level of anxiety caused by recent shootings in public places.

The North Brunswick Fire Department, however, responded to Tap into by saying that the delay was the alarm system was not transmitting the alarm out, adding that the delay “was caused by the theater, not the fire department” and firefighters were on the scene within four minutes.

TAP into East Brunswick provided it’s down response, saying there was confusion after it initially appeared that emergency services had been called, but “apparently, they had not been.” The full response can be found by clicking here.

The North Brunswick Police Department provided its own response right here:

On behalf of the North Brunswick Department of Public Safety, I wanted to take a minute to respond to the inaccurate story posted by TapInto, more specifically by Maureen McVeigh-Berzok, on December 29th, 2015. The story is intended to be about the North Brunswick Fire Department taking over thirty minutes to respond to an activated fire alarm at the Regal Cinemas located at 2399 Route One in North Brunswick, NJ. To follow-up to the Fire Departments response, and to be more specific, I offer the following facts:

• • There were two activated fire alarms at that location, on December 28th, 2015.
  • first was received by our Communications Center at 13:57, or 1:57 p.m. The Fire Department, along with one Police Officer, were dispatched at 1:58 p.m. The Police Officer arrived and confirmed that the building had already been evacuated, which is the primary concern along with making an observations of a possible emergency. The Fire Department arrived at 2:03pm, which is five minutes later. Units deemed the building safe and cleared at 2:23 p.m.
  • The second was received at 17:51, or 5:51 p.m. Again, the Fire Department and one Police Officer were dispatched to the incident. The Police Officer was actually already at the theater, on a post at the time of alarm. The Fire Department arrived on location at 5:59 p.m, approximately seven minutes from the time of the alarm. They deemed the building safe and cleared at 6:13 p.m.

As the Fire Department alluded to in their statement, the accusation provided within the original story is grossly inaccurate. The Department of Public Safety can only answer to our role and response in any incident that we handle. Any other details or delays should be addressed with the management of that particular incident location. Factual information is available through the proper channels, and can be verified by contacting us. Thank you.

Photo by Sheena Chi via Flickr