Issue 35 autumn 2022 - Flipbook - Page 74
Heritage buildings and
the challenges compliance
with current regulations
By Richard Williams, Divisional Director,
Assent Group & Oculus Building Consultancy
Making a heritage building fire safe can be challenging
but there are several different aspects that should be
considered:
There has been a trend in recent years to take historical
buildings and renovate them for different usage – offices,
houses, flats and even schools now occupy some of the
UK’s oldest structures. But working with heritage sites
certainly comes with challenges. There are two significant
areas that someone considering developing a heritage site
needs to consider, even if the work is simply restoring a
site to its former glory without change of use. And those
are fire risk and accessibility.
The use of compartmentation to reduce the risk of fire
spreading either around the building or to other buildings
that might be linked through hidden voids, cavities, roof
spaces and facades. Surveys can be carried out to identify
these risks and put remedial works in place to help deal
with these challenges.
Fire Risk
Fire and heritage sites don’t mix well. You need only think
about the significant fires in heritage sites in the last 40
and you could probably name the three main ones that
have made the news – Notre Dame, Windsor Castle and
York Minster. However, this only scratches the surface of
the real story. Every year we lose heritage buildings to fire.
Some are uninhabited or derelict, but many are in use
today and the fire's cause damage that is often irreversible,
meaning that we lose more of our history. Heritage buildings do present unique challenges for fire safety as they
were built in a time when no fire safety regulations were
enforceable or in place. It is, however, the responsibility
of the industry to ensure that any retrofit or works carried
out to a heritage building complies with the current fire
safety standards, whilst trying to be sympathetic to the
historic fabric and features.
Automatic fire detection systems are critical to give early
warning of a fire and advise occupants of the need to
evacuate the building quickly and safely via the nearest
route. These should always be installed in a retrofit of a
building.
Whilst some heritage sites may have sprinkler systems and
dry risers, these should be checked against current regulations as they may not have been installed to current
standards. Automatic Fire Suppression Systems should be
installed to ensure the safety of the building, its occupants,
and its contents.
It is highly likely that heritage buildings will have been
constructed using non-compliant materials including
glass, wooden panelling, lath and plaster and occasionally
asbestos. Consideration needs to be given to the affect
this will have on fire safety and how best to mitigate this.
Fire doors can be an incredibly effective way to prevent
the spread of a fire in any building but in a heritage building it is unlikely that any of the original doors are fire
rated. It is not always possible to remove these doors and
replace them with more modern and compliant doors so
it is worth considering the solutions that are available that
can make an existing historic door more resistant to fire
and heat.
There are a number of things that any building owner
needs to do in order to protect a heritage site, starting
with the most obvious, which is to carry out a full Fire
Risk Assessment. This is a legal requirement and because
of the many intricacies of a heritage site, it is also recommended that this is done by a competent assessor with an
understanding and appreciation of fire safety in heritage
buildings. A Fire Risk Assessment should be reviewed
regularly to maintain its relevancy and ensure nothing has
been done to the building that might alter the result of
the assessment.
The best advice for any owner or occupier of a heritage
building is to get the building surveyed by a competent
person. This person should be fully versed in the current
fire regulations and can help you to put an effective plan
in place to make the building a safer place for its occupants, the public and any historical artefacts. Fire can very
quickly take hold and spread through a heritage site and
any adjoining buildings so ensuring regular checks and
updates is vital.
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Every site should have an Emergency Response Plan that
includes details of contacts, site plans and log sheets. If
the site contains artifacts of historical value a Salvage Plan
should also be included. This identifies the items that
should be salvaged first, how to remove them and where
in the building they are situated.
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Conservation & Heritage Journal
72