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Kokua Line

By June Watanabe

Monday, June 22, 1998

Room capacity pushed,
not safety, at graduations

What is the capacity of the Blaisdell exhibition hall? I attended two graduations there recently. At one, upwards of 7,000 people left the arena to give flowers and leis to the graduates in the exhibition hall. I fear if there was a panic, we would have a serious disaster. Is the Fire Department turning its head so the city can get money for this?

For sit-down catering, the 65,000-square-foot exhibition hall can accommodate a maximum 3,500 people, said city Auditoriums Director Alvin Au. For a public assembly, it can accommodate about 5,000.

Au said there were an estimated 5,700 people in the arena and about another 1,000 outside on the day you specified. He had no exact head count of those in the exhibition hall because people were moving in and out.

But Au said he did not believe safety was an issue.

"We can sense an overload of people" and, even with those numbers that day, "we didn't see any problems," he said, adding that all exit doors were wide open. "In a graduation, we try to be as informal as possible."

But the graduation you referred to involved Waipahu High and that event was marred by a blackout.

The arena staff was urging people to leave, "not knowing the exhibition hall was not open," and the exhibition hall staff was sending people out because of the blackout. So "there were two converging forces that caused a chaotic situation," Au said.

The Honolulu Fire Department generally regulates assembly permits when liquor is sold, said Chief Charles Wassman of the Fire Prevention Bureau.

This was not the case at the graduation gathering, he said.

An assembly permit means the owner of the establishment -- private or public -- is "responsible to make sure the occupant load is complied with and also to maintain the exits to make sure they're not blocked or obstructed in any way," Wassman said.

In this case, he said you should complain to the Blaisdell staff "because they are the ones who would be restricting the number of people going into the exhibition hall."

For any building, "They should not be able to exceed the occupant load in any circumstance," he said. However, with people moving in and out, "it is difficult to ascertain what the capacity is."

The city Building Department regulates building capacity. For the exhibition hall, the public assembly capacity is 5,499, said safety chief Melvin Lee.

Au said he received many angry calls from Waipahu High parents because of the blackout. Some threatened to sue the city, and some demanded refunds for money paid to the school.

The city was to refund Waipahu High the $660 cost of renting out the hall.

The cause of the blackout -- a light fixture ballast blowing up -- was fixed after 45 minutes, but it was too late to continue the festivities, Au said.

Auwe

To the driver who stopped in the right lane of the H-1 about 12:30 p.m May 1 to get to the Middle Street cutoff that he had already passed. It forced me and a driver in front to stop suddenly. Unfortunately, the car in back couldn't stop in time. I suffered pain and loss of work because of his carelessness and stupidity. But mahalo to police officer Nahina for his help. -- A.W.

Mahalo

This is the first time I've been to Honolulu, and I've had a great time. Everybody has been so friendly. It really has been paradise. -- Your friend from Down Under, Mark Ginn, Melbourne

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