On the 4th of January, 2019, a house in the Polish city of Koszalin caught fire, leading
to the deaths of five teenagers.
It was an accident that made news headlines around the world – not just because of the
tragic loss of life, but because the building was being used to host an escape game – a
relatively new and unusual form of entertainment with its own unique set of difficulties and
dangers.
The concept which underpins most live escape games is relatively simple: players are locked
inside a room, and must solve a series of puzzles in order to escape, with the final
puzzle allowing them to exit the room.
Although this format is very common in escape games (and was, in fact, almost universal
in early escape games) there are also games where – instead of escaping – players
must complete other missions (such as finding a particular object) in order to win the game.
A precursor to live escape games were online ones.
As early as 1988 there existed text-based adventure games the object of which was to
escape from a locked room.
These gave way to online, often Flash-based escape room games, which proliferated in the
early 2000s.
In 2009, Takao Kato, a worker at the Japanese publishing company SCRAP, saw a co-worker
playing an online escape game, and wondered if something similar could be created in the
real world.
Soon, Takao was running regular games, renting out space in bars and clubs in order to do
so.
The games were wildly popular, and soon attracted international attention.
Throughout the early 2010s, escape games spread to Europe, America and the rest of the world.
They also steadily became more sophisticated.
Early escape games often consisted of a series of unrelated puzzles in an un-themed room,
most of which relied on simple elements like padlocks, combination locks and keys.
As companies began to compete, escape games with movie-quality theming, engrossing stories
and technologically complex puzzles became more and more common.
Escape games captured the imagination of filmmakers, with a number of movies made about them.
Often the main conceit of these fictional works would be an escape room that posed real
danger to the players trapped within.
This was, of course, fantasy.
Most escape games were relatively safe.
As businesses that relied largely on word-of-mouth for their custom, it was a priority for many
owners to design rooms that were exciting, but safe to play.
At the same time, however, there were few specific regulations in any country that set
standards for safety within escape rooms.
They were such a new phenomenon that a fatal accident in an escape room had never been
reported, and thus enforcing safety within escape games was a low priority for police,
local councils and government.
For many years, in many countries around the world, escape games were only bound by the
same rules that applied to any other business that welcomed members of the public.
There was, however, an awareness among escape game owners and designers that an accident
arising from the specific qualities of escape games was likely to happen at some point.
Over the course of the 2010s, some accidents did take place in escape rooms – although
in most cases they were accidents of the kind that could happen in any business, such as
slips, trips and falls.
Accidents that did arise from the unique qualities of escape games were usually minor in nature,
with a few reports of patrons falling when startled by surprising special effects, or
sustaining small cuts, bruises or pinching injuries from interacting with doors containers
or other props.
This changed on the 4th of January, 2019, when a fire began at the premises of an escape
game in the Polish city of Koszalin.
The building was home to four differently-themed rooms, only one of which was in use when the
fire began shortly after 5:00pm.
In the room were five fifteen-year-old high-school students who had booked the room to celebrate
a birthday.
Elsewhere in the building a single staff member was monitoring their progress via a camera
system.
The building was heated using bottled gas… and it later emerged that this was the source
of the fire.
Gas leaked from the seal of one of the bottles.
The lone staff member smelled gas and attempted to switch off the gas supply, but the leaking
gas ignited before he could do so, creating a wall of flame in a waiting area adjacent
to the game room.
The flames prevented the staff member from accessing the game room where the five teenage
players were now trapped.
Though the game room did have windows, these had been boarded over during the process of
adding scenery and theming to the room.
As part of the game, the only exit door from the room was locked.
In the event of a fire, it had been anticipated that a staff member would unlock this door
from the outside… but in this case the intensity of the fire made this impossible.
The fire service was called at 5:15pm, and arrived just six minutes later at 5:21pm.
Despite this, all five of the teenage players died from asphyxiation.
One was able to call their father on their cellphone before being overwhelmed, but had
time only to say a single word: “Help”.
The staff member was injured by the fire, but survived, and was taken to hospital.
The sudden loss of so many young lives was a shock to the city of Koszalin, and the manner
of their death left many unanswered questions.
An investigation revealed that the business had been set up within what had once been
a residential property, without local authorities being advised of the change in use.
Because of this, the building had not been inspected as a commercial premises.
Had it been inspected, even though there were no specific standards for escape game safety
in Poland, several hazardous conditions would likely have been identified.
Players were routinely locked into rooms, with no way of unlocking the door themselves
even in an emergency.
Windows and other exits were, in many cases, covered – and staff were relied upon to
unlock doors and evacuate players in the event of an emergency.
Had there been an emergency exit that players could access without staff intervention, it
is likely that the teenage victims of the fire would have been able to escape.
The business owner, the injured employee and several other people connected with the escape
room venue were arrested.
The owner faced charges of intentionally creating an unsafe situation, and unintentionally causing
five deaths.
The teenagers who perished in the fire were remembered at a service in the town’s cathedral,
attended by hundreds of people who lit candles and left flowers and toys in their memory.
The effect on the escape game industry in Poland was dramatic.
An immediate inspection of more than 1,000 game venues across the country was ordered
and carried out within a matter of months.
At least 13 were shut down instantly for failing to meet basic safety standards.
Many others were ordered to make changes, and several venues shut down in the months
that followed due to a sharp decline in bookings as a result of news coverage of the fire.
Beyond this, the fire affected the escape game industry in almost every country where
escape games were common.
It was the first accident of its kind, and a terrible one.
In many countries a widespread inspection program was undertaken.
Many, many escape games around the world were ordered to close until modifications had been
made to make them fully compliant with local fire regulations.
In most cases, however, no specific legislation or guidelines were introduced for escape rooms,
with local authorities instead referring to existing guidelines covering leisure or amusement
facilities.
Separately, many escape room owners and designers re-evaluated their approach to fire safety.
It is now very unusual for players to be locked into a room as part of a game.
There is almost always at least one unlocked and clearly marked emergency exit, or a clearly
marked and easy-to-activate means of unlocking a locked exit door.
Escape games continue to evolve, becoming more mainstream and more popular with each
passing year.
As they do so, the collective pool of knowledge about how to safely build and maintain them
also grows, authorities become more used to evaluating and inspecting them, and safe ways
of achieving desired effects are invented.
As with any new game, innovation, invention or form of entertainment, there are risks
that are specific to escape rooms.
By ensuring that lessons are learned when things go wrong, these risks can be minimised,
and accidents that arise from the design of escape rooms can, all being well, be made
into something rare and extremely unusual.