Can we learn from the her it age lost in a fire? - Museovirasto

sponsibility for fire protection and the local authorities
bear the responsibility for the rescue
service.
The primary interest in all these Acts is always
to safeguard human life and secondly to safeguard
property. There is no mention of historic buildings
in the Finnish Act but in Sweden, according to the
new Act, the owner of a protected heritage building
has to report how the fire protection for the
building has been arranged to the local fire authorities.
If necessary, the fire authorities can carry out
an inspection. In Norway, the Act states that the
local fire authorities are to inspect all registered
cultural heritage properties every four years. Unfortunately,
the registers on cultural heritage properties
are very often unavailable to the fire authorities.
Another problem is that if an inspection is
carried out, the officers very often only give priority
to the measures to safeguard human life and
they do not take into consideration the cultural
value of a building. In order to change this practice,
the Direktoratet for brann- og eksplosjonsvern,
now Direktoratet for samfunnssikkerhet og
beredskap (Directorate for Civil Defence and
Emergency Planning), in cooperation with the
Riksantikvaren, issued a booklet in 1997 that included
a checklist for fire inspectors.
Laws on cultural heritage
This law in Finland and Norway states that the
cultural heritage authorities should always be
contacted if a protected building is destroyed by
fire. The authorities will then decide on the necessary
measures.
The cultural heritage laws of each country
contain nothing else concerning fire protection.
The only point that can be applied is to the installation
of fire protection technology; all alterations
and installations should be carried out in
such a way that they do not affect the value of the
heritage building. The legislation in all the countries
stipulates that the permission of the heritage
authorities is needed for all alterations and technical
installations.
Other regulations
In Finland, the Maankäyttö- ja rakennuslaki (the
Land Use and Building Act) defines the essential
technical requirements for all buildings, including
fire safety. Implementation of this Act is defined
in the National Building Code of Finland, part E
of which deals with fire safety. The regulations in
the Building Code are binding, but they concern
the construction of a new building. They are applied
case by case for existing buildings if larger
repairs or alterations are carried out or if there are
serious shortcomings in fire safety. In all other
cases, old buildings are treated in accordance with
the safety regulations as applied at the time of
their construction.
The Plan- och bygglagen in Sweden and the
Plan- og bygningsloven in Norway (the Planning
and Building Act) also include regulations concerning
cultural heritage buildings, but there are
no special instructions for the fire protection of
these buildings.
2.7 Cooperation with other
authorities dealing with
fire protection matters
The heritage authorities in Sweden and Norway
are in close contact with the rescue services. The
Statens Räddningsverk (the Swedish Rescue
Agency) and the Riksantikvarieämbetet in Sweden
have jointly published a handbook titled
“Brandskydd i kulturbyggnader”. The book is directed
at local officials, heritage inspectors at the
municipal level, property owners and managers,
architects and other relevant bodies. The book
has received a good reception and the heritage
authorities are even asked to give lectures on the
subject to the rescue service authorities around
Sweden.
In Norway, the Direktoratet for samfunnssikkerhet
og beredskap (Directorate for Civil Defence
and Emergency Planning) has established a
national goal that no irreplaceable cultural values
should be lost in fire. The Directorate, in cooperation
with the Riksantikvaren, is planning to carry
out a survey on the fire protection in Norwegian
cultural heritage properties in the near future.
The contact between the heritage and fire
protection authorities in Finland is not so close.
There is a special need for instructions directed at
the local fire and building inspectors who bear
the main responsibility for supervising application
of the Building Code.
‹ 11