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

Wooden towns are typical in all three countries (Rauma, Finland).
2. Introduction
2.1 The project
The risk of fire is a serious concern especially
in the Nordic countries, where the
majority of historic buildings are made
of wood. The laws and practices for fire protection
are well developed but the legislation does
not usually specify the practices concerning historic
buildings, so there is need for cooperation to
promote this point of view.
As we have unfortunately had some serious
fires in historic buildings in the Nordic countries,
we thought that it might be possible to learn
something from them, such as how the fire started
and how could it have been avoided. Another
question was whether fire fighting caused any additional
damage to the buildings and if it could
have been avoided.
There are some instructions on how to protect
the ruins of a building after a fire and there
are international manuals for risk preparedness
that deal with highly theoretical approaches to
the measures to be taken after the fire. However,
there is still a need for philosophical evaluation
and discussion on “what to do after the fire”. In
addition, there is a need for practical instructions
on what to do after a fire has taken place.
The outcome of fires may vary a lot, from
partial damage to total devastation. Partial destruction
raises difficult practical and ideological
questions concerning documentation, restoration
and financing. Even in the more serious cases of
destruction, there may be methods of documentation
that can secure at least some knowledge.
The above formed the background for the
project, which consisted of three seminars during
2003. The first seminar took place in Finland in
May, the second in Norway in September, and
the last one was held in Sweden in November.
The participants in the seminars had the opportunity
to discuss the practices of fire protection
and the actions following fires in all the participating
countries and they were able to learn
from each other’s experiences. We did not have
sufficient time to go very deeply into the details
of fire protection but we did learn that there are
many ways to prevent a fire and to protect buildings
against fire. The important aspects are that
each historic building is unique and has to be
treated accordingly and that fire protection is a
continuous activity that should be considered part
of the normal maintenance of buildings. Another
A stave church is a medieval type of building that is mainly preserved in Norway (28 churches).
One stave church is also preserved in Sweden.
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