Wooden heritage buildings and preventing them against fire

Abstract

The protection of wooden heritage buildings against fire, biodeterioration, robbery and vandalism is one of the most important tasks in the field of cultural property preservation. In Poland and other European countries, the most popular wood-made objects are historical wooden churches (Catholic and Orthodox ones), rural huts, cottages, sheds, barns and wooden wind mills which are like open air museums. Wood is the most common raw material that was used for the construction of these objects since ancient times. Generally these wooden objects are wholly combustible, they are mostly located beyond towns and difficult to guard and exposed to risk of setting on fire. Not everywhere there is a sufficient supply of water from water tanks and fire hydrant network. Moreover, there is a lack of good access ways for fire brigade vehicles and no fire detecting systems were installed in many of these objects. Unfortunately, fire retardant application is insufficient or totally absent in these heritage buildings. This manuscript presents general possibilities of the application of modern technology of fire retardancy systems intended for the protection the heritage objects against fire disaster. None or only minimal influence on an ancient object wood is the advantage of the above systems. The fire safety strategy for wooden buildings and historical sites requires an agreement and compromise between the point of view of art. Historians and conservators and that of fire-fighting experts.