User Manual

Fire Safety
28
Building Technologies 049_Archives_and_Libraries_A6
V10271399_a_en.doc
Fire Safety & Security Products 03.2009
4 Fire Safety
4.1 Introduction
According to J. A. Wilson, Director for Fire Protection and Safety in the Smith-
sonian Institution, fire is the most prevalent threat faced by cultural institutions. Un-
til a thoroughly elaborated plan to deal with fire is in place, occupants, collections
and buildings are at risk. The complexity of the plans may vary from a simple fire
prevention and evacuation program, to a complex plan including passive auto-
mated fire safety systems.
Property damaged by floods can often be dried out and restored. Structural dam-
age from an earthquake might be repaired. Stolen property always has a chance of
being recovered. Damage from fire, however, is usually permanent and irreparable.
Historical buildings or contents, once reduced to ash, can never be restored. Fire is
more cunning and less discriminating than a thief. It can travel (spread) through
very small openings and concealed spaces to reach other parts of a building, de-
prive occupants of a life supporting environment, and cause partial to total destruc-
tion of property.
Claus Friis is responsible for Security and Fire Safety in the Royal Library and
Royal Archives of Denmark, a conglomerate of 21 buildings and over 100.000 m
2
,
home for over 200 Km of book-shelves and visited yearly by around 1.000.000
people. He assures that 80% of the annual budget in his administration is dedi-
cated to fire safety. The remaining 20% is for security, facility management and
other topics.
They have decided to protect the whole conglomerate of buildings (3.500 rooms)
with a combination of passive and active fire safety measure. One of the passive
measures is among others the 500 fire-doors that provide the appropriated com-
partmentalization, to protect valuable contents from fire, heat, smoke, combustion
gases, etc. As active fire safety measure, a state of the art fire detection system is
installed in every single room. Additional extinguishing systems are in place for the
areas where unique documents are stored.
Mr. Friis assures that in case of a fire incident there are 3 elements that have to
work properly to minimize the impact:
– People reaction The right instruction and enough exercises must
be performed to assure people will react quickly and safely
– Technology Reliable and state of the art technology, custom-
ized to the specific application needs is required.
– Disaster plan The right processes have to be defined and in-
cluded in a fire safety manual, specific for each building. Each employee in
the building must now this.
The interaction among the above mentioned elements is crucial to assure a com-
prehensive fire safety concept.
People reaction is considered as being the most critical element, periodic exercises
involving local fire brigades, police, employees and private security guards are
strongly recommended. It is usual practice that the exercises are not previously