Park Slope Escape Room Deemed Fire Hazard, Shut Down By FDNY

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — An escape room on Union Street was one of many recently shut down by FDNY officials as the city works out the best way to regulate the new immersive attractions.

Myss Tic Escape Rooms at 794 Union Street was given a vacate order by FDNY for "illegal construction of partition walls and escape room challenges" in a way that would be hazardous should there ever be a fire, according to records posted on its windows. The vacate orders, issued on April 1, say that the "amusement area" in the business' basement did not have a fire alarm or required sprinklers.

But owners say that the vacate order was actually a misunderstanding that many escape room businesses are facing since the city does not have specific regulations for the new type of business.

Myss Tic had the correct permits for creating the escape room when they started earlier this year, but during the surprise inspection by FDNY learned that the city was changing the category escape rooms fall under, co-owner Gara Roda said. She added that getting answers from the Department of Buildings and FDNY about what is required has been a problem from the start.

"It's difficult for us to understand what we have to comply with if there’s no code for us to follow," she said. "We called FDNY and DOB and tried to ask what is the code for escape rooms...nobody could give us an answer."

The escape rooms were previously put under an office use in the regulations since there wasn't a specific category for them, Roda said.

Now, DOB has classified the businesses as "special amusement building/space," a spokeswoman with the department said. A building's zoning or the complicated layout of an escape room may make it so it does not comply with building code, but DOB and FDNY are collaborating to come up with options that work for the new attractions, she added.

"Items like complicated layouts that don't have direct exits or exits that are indistinguishable from required exits, which are typical of escape rooms, are not code compliant," the spokeswoman, Abigail Kunitz said by email. "DOB is working with FDNY to come up with guidelines (such as possibly requiring fail-safe mechanisms and extra safety personnel) so these spaces can be made code compliant."

Roda said that other escape room businesses have also recently run into confusion with the newer classification.

A task force created by FDNY to look into the escape room trend issued 21 violation orders after visiting 22 escape rooms across the boroughs, according to Gothamist.

Some of the other escape rooms had drapery or tapestries that were not flameproofed or lacked fire extinguishers, an FDNY official told Gothamist. Others were operating without a certificate of occupancy or public assembly.

Roda said that the escape room owners hope to find a middle ground between the "office use" and the amusement space use since she believes the businesses don't necessarily fit into either. The amusement category, used for larger-scale rides like roller coasters, requires a sprinkler system that could be very costly, she said.

Myss Tic already has clearly-marked egress points, fire-proofed decorations and fire extinguishers and are hoping they could find a way more suited for their small business to comply with the new regulations.

"We’re basically trying to open and be as safe as possible," she said. "We are trying to understand what the new code is and how we can comply with it without going bankrupt."