An investigation into the fire safety management of historic buildings

This paper presents the findings of a research project which considered the issues surrounding fire safety management in historic buildings. The main aim was to establish to what extent having a robust fire safety management regime might stand as an alternative to physical measures in achieving a satisfactory level of fire safety. In order to do this, a research method focusing on qualitative methods and aiming to gain an in-depth understanding of the issues was adopted. Secondary data was gathered from a wide range of literature. This was supplemented by interviews with a number of experts in the field of fire safety management and officers of the local fire and rescue service, to gain both a strategic and an operational view of fire service response. The theme was developed with a look at fire safety management in practice: taking three country houses in the local area as case studies. The conclusion arrived at was that, subject to a number of important limitations, such as human fallibility, the findings supported the hypothesis that adopting a robust fire safety management strategy in country houses would allow a reduced level of physical measures to achieve a satisfactory level of fire safety. It was noted, however, that this conclusion was reached with the use of wholly subjective data. It would however, given the subject under consideration, be difficult for this to be otherwise.