UNESCO Document on Fire Protection

Protecting Cultural and Natural Heritage from Fire: A New UNESCO Guide

A new UNESCO report, presented on 13 November 2024, highlights the continuing threat of fires to global cultural and natural heritage and provides comprehensive guidance for managing these risks. The report, entitled “Protecting Cultural and Natural Heritage from Fire: Fire Risk Management Guide,” addresses the growing challenges posed by fires, exacerbated by climate change and human activities.

The UNESCO document begins by stating that the world’s heritage, both cultural and natural, is increasingly threatened by fires. From historic sites to ancient forests, the risk of devastating fires is growing at an alarming rate. Climate change, with rising temperatures and drought conditions, is fueling this danger. The report highlights the urgent need for comprehensive planning and preparedness to mitigate these risks.

The Guide provides a practical framework for developing Fire Risk Management Plans (FRMPs) tailored to the specific needs of different heritage sites. The report also provides insights into various types of fires, including:

• controlled burning, which is fires deliberately started and managed for beneficial purposes, such as vegetation management.
• structural fires, which are fires that occur in buildings and structures, often caused by electrical faults, hot work or arson.
• wildfires, which are uncontrolled fires involving vegetation, which pose a significant threat to natural and cultural sites.

The report then explores the factors that make heritage sites particularly vulnerable to fires, including:

• lack of comprehensive FRMPs: Many sites lack comprehensive fire risk management plans, leaving them unprepared to deal with fire threats.
• ignition sources Heritage sites often host numerous ignition sources, such as electrical systems, open flames and hot work.
  combustible materials. Traditional building materials, such as wood and thatch, as well as dry vegetation in natural areas, provide ample fuel for fires.
  lack of compartmentalisation. The lack of fire barriers in historic buildings can allow fires to spread rapidly.
  Lack of suppression systems. Many sites lack automatic fire suppression systems, which can contain fires in their early stages when their presence is actually justified.

The guidance recommends a range of measures to reduce fire risks, including:
– Reducing ignition sources. Implement stringent fire safety measures, including regular inspections of electrical systems, managing hot work and banning smoking in designated areas.
– Limiting combustible materials. Reduce the build-up of dry vegetation around heritage structures and use fire-resistant building materials where possible.
– Creating compartmentation. Divide large buildings into smaller compartments using fire-resistant walls and doors to prevent the spread of fires.
– Installing early detection systems. Implement fire detection systems, such as smoke and heat detectors, to provide early warning of fires.
– Providing suppression systems. Install automatic fire suppression systems, such as sprinklers, where appropriate, to extinguish fires quickly and effectively.

In addition to risk reduction measures, the Guide highlights the importance of emergency preparedness, including:

• Developing emergency response plans: Create comprehensive plans that describe evacuation procedures, communication protocols, and the roles and responsibilities of staff and stakeholders.
• Conducting training exercises: Conducting regular training exercises to ensure staff and stakeholders are well-prepared to respond effectively to a fire.
• Community engagement: Involve local communities in fire risk management efforts, leveraging their local knowledge and traditional practices.

The Guide also highlights the importance of incorporating traditional ecological knowledge and cultural practices into fire risk management. Indigenous and local communities often have a deep understanding of local ecosystems and fire patterns, which can be invaluable in developing effective mitigation strategies.
In general terms, UNESCO seems to encourage all stakeholders, including site managers, local communities and governments, to use this guidance to develop and implement comprehensive fire risk management plans. The report serves as a call to action to safeguard global cultural and natural heritage for present and future generations.
The Guidance also addresses the specific challenges posed by fires during renovation and construction work. Heritage sites are particularly vulnerable during these periods due to increased ignition sources and combustible materials, as well as potential disruptions to fire protection systems.
To mitigate these risks, the Guidance recommends the following measures:
– Implement stringent fire safety protocols for all construction work. This includes issuing hot work permits, banning smoking and providing fire extinguishers in work areas.
– Keep escape routes clear. Ensure that escape routes are clearly marked and free of obstacles, allowing for rapid and safe evacuation in the event of a fire.
– Providing structural protection. Protect structural elements from fires using fire-resistant materials or protective coatings.

– Consider temporary suppression systems: Install temporary suppression systems, such as sprinklers or fire hoses, during construction work.

Main sources of fire mentioned in the Guide

The Guide describes three main categories of fires:

• Controlled fires. These are fires that are intentionally started and carefully managed for various beneficial purposes, such as vegetation management. They are also called planned, cultural, managed, intentional, contained or targeted fires, among others. They are an integral and beneficial part of our daily lives, performing a variety of functions such as signalling, protection, transportation, industrial processes and construction activities. However, they need to be carefully managed to prevent them from becoming inadvertent ignition sources for structure fires and wildfires.
• Structural fires. These are uncontrolled and unwanted fires that involve man-made structures, including buildings, monuments, vehicles and other man-made environments. These fires typically involve the combustion of not only the contents within the structure, but also the interior finishes, building elements and façades, if they are combustible materials. They can originate within a single structure and spread rapidly to adjacent structures, further increasing the risk and potential for widespread damage and loss.
• Wildfires: These are uncontrolled fires involving vegetation that pose a significant threat to natural and cultural sites. Wildfires can be defined by several factors, including the type of vegetation involved and the part of the vegetation that is burning. Wildfires can occur in a variety of ecosystems, including forests, grasslands, savannahs, and peatlands. The guide notes that several terms are used to describe which part of the vegetation is burning, including ground fires, surface fires, and crown fires.

The three main phases of fire risk management

The three main phases of fire risk management, as described in the sources, are:

• Before: This phase includes risk assessment and the development of (1) risk reduction and (2) emergency preparedness measures. This phase involves identifying potential fire hazards, assessing the vulnerability of people and property, and implementing measures to reduce the likelihood and impact of fires.
• During: This phase refers to (3) emergency response and is activated when a fire occurs. This phase focuses on the actions taken during a fire to contain and extinguish the fire, protect people and property, and minimize damage.
• After: This phase consists of post-fire activities for (4) recovery, rehabilitation, and building back better, which include damage assessment, treatment, stabilization, and conservation. This phase involves assessing the damage caused by the fire, restoring damaged property, learning from the incident, and implementing measures to prevent future fires.

The steps to develop a Fire Risk Management Plan (FRMP)

UNESCO’s “Protecting Cultural and Natural Heritage from Fire: Fire Risk Management Guide” describes a six-step process for developing a FRMP. Here is a description of each step:

Step 1: Identify scope and details. This step involves gathering relevant information about the heritage site, including its cultural and natural values, history, current use, and potential fire threats. It is important to gather detailed information on a range of factors, including:

• History of the site and heritage significance. Understand the history of the site, its unique cultural and natural values, significant features, and specific vulnerabilities.
• Site use and occupation: Identify how the site is used, who occupies it, and patterns of use that could affect fire risk (e.g. special events, seasonal activities).
• Site documents and maps: Obtain detailed site maps and plans, including buildings, infrastructure, vegetation, and water sources.
• Construction materials and methods: Document the construction materials and methods used in heritage structures, as they influence fire behaviour and protection strategies.
• Traditional knowledge, methods, materials: Collect information on traditional knowledge, methods and materials used in fire management or construction, as they can provide valuable information for risk reduction.
• Limitations on heritage attributes due to the installation of risk reduction measures. Assess potential conflicts or limitations that risk reduction measures may impose on heritage attributes, ensuring a balance between protection and conservation.
• Emergency responders: Collect information on local emergency responders, including staffing, equipment, resources and location, to effectively coordinate emergency response.
• Fire resources. Identify fire equipment suppliers, contractors and associated costs to ensure adequate resources are available.
• Impacts of weather and climate change. Assess the impacts of weather (e.g., temperatures, windstorms) and climate change (e.g., increased fire risk) on the site’s fire risk.
• Multi-hazard impacts: Consider the potential impacts of multiple hazards (e.g., earthquakes, floods, volcanoes) and their potential to trigger or exacerbate fires.
• Planning, resources, responsibilities, capital: Establish a clear project schedule, allocate sufficient resources, define roles and responsibilities, and ensure adequate funding for the implementation of the FRMP.
• Regulatory requirements: Identify and comply with relevant regulatory requirements, such as laws, codes, and regulations related to fire safety and asset protection.

Step 2: Identify exposures, vulnerabilities, capabilities, objectives, and hazards. In this step, you need to identify the people and assets that could be affected by a fire, as well as the site’s vulnerabilities, capabilities, and potential fire hazards.

Exposure assessment:

• Create a comprehensive inventory of people and assets and how they could be affected by the fire.
• Consider occupants, users, visitors, communities, volunteers and responders.
• Include site (extent, terrain, components, etc.), structure (building, historic fabric, etc.), content (e.g., collections, furnishings, etc.) and infrastructure (structures, systems, utilities, natural resources, etc.).
• Recognize surrounding factors such as environmental, social, economic, agricultural and sustainability.
• Understand how fires can influence exposures through fire effects, suppression agents and fire operations.
• Capacity assessment:
• Identify attributes and resources available to increase capacity to respond to fires and reduce risks.
• Consider risk reduction measures such as limiting ignition sources, reducing combustible materials, compartmentation, fire detection, alarm/notification, egress systems, structural fire resistance and fire suppression.

Fire Safety Objectives:

• Develop fire safety objectives to quantify maximum acceptable limits of damage and loss, including those caused by fire and firefighting efforts.
• Set objectives related to protection of people, property, environment, heritage values, disruption of operations, and mission continuity.
• Establish thresholds to quantify acceptable loss or damage, ensuring that mitigation measures keep parameters within acceptable limits (e.g., maximum temperature and duration of exposure for a painting).

Hazard Identification:

• Identify ignition sources internal and external to the site and facility.
• Use tools such as failure mode and effects analysis, hazard and operability studies, statistics, and historical data.
• Focus on fires with the highest probability/frequency, highest consequences, and impact on people and assets.

Step 3: Develop fire scenarios. Fire scenarios are hypothetical descriptions of how a fire could develop in a given location. They help identify potential risks and develop appropriate mitigation measures.

• Fire scenarios outline the sequence and timing of events to understand the development and progression of a fire, as well as the responses undertaken in parallel (occupants, responders, collection removal teams, etc.).
• Identify key components on a temporal basis to enable comparison and assess whether risk reduction measures can achieve fire safety objectives.
• Consider site-specific factors such as changes in use/functionality, time/day, time of year, arson, location and multi-risk assessments.

Step 4: Evaluate fire scenarios. In this step, you need to evaluate the fire scenarios developed in Step 3 to determine whether fire safety objectives will be achieved with existing or proposed risk reduction measures. This can be done using a variety of methods, including computer models, risk analysis and expert assessments.

• Determine whether existing or proposed risk reduction measures will achieve the fire safety objectives.
• Use assessment methods ranging from qualitative methods (based on expert perceptions) to quantitative methods (deterministic or scenario analysis, probabilistic risk analysis and/or historical analysis).
• Evaluate various factors to determine the effectiveness of risk reduction measures, such as the nature of the hazards, the time required to reach untenable conditions, the activation time of fire detection and suppression systems, evacuation time and response time of emergency responders.

Step 5: Identify/assess alternative risk reduction measures (if necessary). If the assessment in Step 4 indicates that the fire safety objectives will not be achieved, alternative risk reduction measures should be identified and assessed. This may involve modifying existing measures or implementing new measures.

If fire safety objectives are not met, explore alternative risk reduction measures.

• Evaluate the impact of each alternative on mitigating the event, along with the costs and resources required.
• Conduct cost-benefit analyses to determine the most appropriate and effective alternative to reduce risks and achieve objectives.
• Consider factors such as the rate of fire growth and the importance of reducing the time from detection to final suppression.

Step 6: Develop a Fire Risk Management Plan. The final step is to develop a written FRMP that outlines the risk reduction measures that will be implemented, as well as procedures for emergency preparedness, response and recovery. The plan should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure it remains effective.

Integrate risk reduction measures into the FRMP, including measures for analysis, risk reduction, preparedness, emergency response and recovery phases, as well as specifications for installation and equipment.

By following these steps, according UNESCO a comprehensive FRMP can be developed that helps protect cultural and natural heritage sites from the threat of fire.

It is important to note that the UNESCO guidance provides only an overview of the process of developing a FRMP. The specific steps involved and the mitigation measures that need to be implemented will vary depending on the individual circumstances of each heritage site.
It is also recommended that qualified fire safety and heritage protection experts are consulted to develop a suitable FRMP.

Ultimately, the guide aims to provide a global direction for fire protection. Although this goal is part of UNESCO’s institutional mission, also supported by the fact that fire risk does not change with the cultural approach of the countries to which it applies, greater attention to local specificities would have been appropriate. For example, the provision of fire suppression systems should be indicated as one of the possible paths to follow, given the complexity of the systems and the delicacy of the maintenance activities that these systems require.