Keeping Your City’s History from Becoming History

By Brad Cronin

History’s treasures are all around us. Whether it be the historic location and the events that occurred there, the structures, the natives and settlers and their cherished objects, many are important cultural or historic artifacts that must be preserved for the next generation. The culturally or historically significant element can be the building itself or the collections within, and sometimes both. There are many facets to protection of these significant items, and this article will focus on some of the resources available and the importance of proper planning.

When the value is in the collection, sometimes new and elaborate museums are built integrating high-tech fire protection and security features. These systems will be aimed not only at life safety and property protection, but will more specifically target protection of the irreplaceable contents that exists in the form of collections.

Significant Buildings

Often, the history exists in the form of structures or buildings that date back many years. These structures often predate any type of building or fire code. Considering many were built without codes and now, these places are being used as an assembly occupancy, hosting tours for many more occupants than were originally in them, we have a space that presents a unique challenge for fire protection professionals. We have many examples from around the world of major fires in historic buildings, such as the recent fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Since historic buildings are often well known as tourist attractions, the fires are covered in international news outlets.

So, the question becomes how do we take a historic building or a cultural resource property and protect it in a way that provides a reasonable amount of life safety and property protection. The protection of historic buildings is covered in the International Existing Building Code as well NFPA 101, Life Safety Code and NFPA 5000, Building Construction and Safety Code. These documents all address the unique nature of historic buildings and how compliance with the current model codes may not be easily achieved prescriptively.

This brings us to NFPA 914, Code for the Protection of Historic Structures, a document that is specific to these buildings and offers both a prescriptive and performance-based option for compliance. NFPA 914 is referenced in some of the model codes and is written mainly to the owner of the historic building but can be used by design professionals when the building undergoes any changes in occupancy or modifications are made. The purpose of the document has undergone recent changes to include not only fire hazards but also security concerns, as these buildings are often the target of criminals.

Significant Collections

In addition to the irreplaceable nature of historic buildings, many of these buildings contain religious objects, artifacts or other cultural material that itself is also priceless and one-of-a-kind. When the historic building houses libraries, museums, or places of worship, another document, NFPA 909, Code for the Protection of Cultural Resource Properties – Museums, Libraries, and Places of Worship is another resource for the owner and design professional alike. This document focuses on the contents and collections of these buildings as they are often priceless artifacts and irreplaceable. A major part of this document focuses on planning and being prepared for all types of natural and man-made disasters.

Part of the planning process, needs to involve the first responders, as these personnel are going to respond to the facility during an emergency and with proper knowledge and training can assist in saving the collections. One of the priorities during an incident for the fire department is salvage of property in the effected structure. This priority falls below life safety and property conservation, however with the right number of personnel assembled on scene in a timely fashion, these can occur simultaneously. In addition, with pre-incident planning that includes the fire department, the priorities may be altered. For example, a collection of priceless artifacts housed in a relatively new museum may be more valuable to the building owner than the building itself. If that concept is relayed to the fire department during planning, they can alter their priorities during an incident and focus on the priorities that are important to the owner. Proper preplanning with the fire department can ensure that they take the unique nature of the building and contents into consideration if they respond to an emergency at the property. If there are sufficient personnel and time, historic windows can be removed versus broken for ventilation, and non-historic doors forced for entry. Certainly, life safety will take precedence for the responding fire department, however if that is not a factor, a more methodical and technical suppression effort that is built upon the prior knowledge of the building and contents can be achieved.

As part of the planning process, the facility representatives should prioritize the collections that they have so that when the fire department arrives and begins salvage, they are aware what is the top priority. Each piece in a collection should also be examined for its weight and size, so that the proper number of personnel are deployed to the area if it needs to be moved. You don’t want to send two 100-pound rookie firefighters to try and remove a 400-pound bronze statue.

There also needs to be some examination of the best method of salvage for each piece in the collection. Do we try to remove the object or leave it in place? Can we cover the object with a tarp or is it so delicate that this will cause more harm than good? A full-scale salvage drill conducted in the UK after the first Glasgow School of Art fire determined that leaving artwork in place on the wall may be better off than having the fire department personnel remove it from the wall. It was determined that due to the bulky nature of firefighting gloves, when personnel grabbed the frames of the paintings their fingers would dimple the canvas and cause the paint to crack and fall off. This resulted in a more difficult restoration process than if the paintings had been left on the walls and sustained smoke damage.

Another concern with removal of items is security. Its great to be able to save priceless items from a fire, however if they start to disappear from the property during the chaos of the incident, there has been no benefit to the owner. Designating a safe location, having a check-in and out process for people coming to the scene can assist in ensuring that only authorized personnel get close enough to objects.

Dealing with a historic building and cultural resource properties can be somewhat of a deviation from the norm of fire protection. We still rely on the same systems and concepts for ensuring that the building is safe for the general public, but we also have the additional concern of the priceless contents and retaining the historic character of the building while trying to integrate safety. Most people that are responsible for cultural resource properties are fearful of fire protection systems and the damage that can be caused by the release of water or agents during a fire event. While their concerns do have some validity in that water can destroy some material and some chemical agents react negatively with paintings or writings, it is our job to alleviate their fears and chose the right systems and methods of protection for the contents we are trying to protect. There are methods to restore historic works that have been damaged by water but there is not a preservationist alive that can take a pile of ashes and turn them back into the original work.

Brad Cronin is with Strategic Code Solutions