Fire Risk Assessment for Heritage Structures of Lahore: Current Situation and Contributing Factors
Abstract
Abstract Views: 0
Pakistan is recognized around the world for its heritage structures which represent the country’s glorious history. These structures are of distinctive architectural and cultural importance. They differ from each other in various aspects of their ornamentations, building fabric, design, and construction process; however, they were typically built without any concern towards fire safety. Worryingly, mortifying accounts of fire disasters have been reported from all over the world. Fire incidents and fire disasters in heritage sites of the world amplify the fact that this threat should be fully recognized and precautionary measures must be taken beforehand. For this purpose, the technique used in this study is called Fire Risk Index (FRI). It has been used internationally for cities with historical values, especially in Portugal. In this study, this technique was applied to 12 cultural heritage buildings of Lahore. A site visit was conducted to each structure. Based on the observations and data, the value of FRI was derived for each structure. Furthermore, the characterization of the buildings was also carried out in terms of fire risk. It was found that Sheesh Mahal and Lahore Museum have the highest fire risk and were classified as high-risk buildings. Overall, the heritage structures included in this study comprised 17% high-risk buildings, 33% moderate-risk buildings, and 50% low-risk buildings. In the same vein, propagation of fire (P) was determined as the most prominent sub-factor in evaluating the FRI values, as there are 67% of heritage structures in which the contribution of this sub-factor is more as compared to other sub-factors. This study contributes towards the development of intervention packages as an efficient tool for fire risk mitigation purposes in heritage structures
Downloads
References
Chishti, R., Seemi, I., & Mujeeb, Z. H. (2017). The Shalamar Gardens Lahore: A case study of Mughal Garden design and concept. Putaj Humanities & Social Sciences, 24(2), 100–107.
Danzi, E., Fiorentini, L., & Marmo, L. (2021). FLAME: A parametric fire risk assessment method supporting performance based approaches. Fire Technology, 57, 721–765. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-020-01014-9
Ferreira, T. M., & Eudave, R. R. (2022). Assessing and managing risk in historic Urban Areas: Current trends and future research directions. Frontiers in Earth Science, 10, Article e847959. https://doi.org/10.3389
Ferreira, T. M., Vicente, R., da Silva, J. A. R. M., Varum, H., Costa, A., & Maio, R. (2016). Urban fire risk: Evaluation and emergency planning. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 20, 739–745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2016.01.011
Garcia-Castillo, E., Paya-Zaforteza, I., & Hospitaler, A. (2022). Fire in heritage and historic buildings, a major challenge for the 21st century. Developments in the Built Environment, 13, Article e100102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2022.100102
Garcia-Castillo, E., Paya-Zaforteza, I., & Hospitaler, A. (2023). Fire in heritage and historic buildings, a major challenge for the 21st century. Developments in the Built Environment, 13, Article e100102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2022.100102
Government of Pakistan. (2016). Building code of Pakistan: Fire safety provisions. https://www.studocu.com/row/document/university-of-sindh/women-peace-building/building-safety-code-of-pakitan/9404877
Granda, S., & Ferreira, T. M. (2019). Assessing vulnerability and fire risk in old urban areas: Application to the historical centre of Guimarães. Fire Technology, 55(1), 105–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-018-0778-z
Granda, S., & Ferreira, T. M. (2021). Large-scale vulnerability and fire risk assessment of the historic centre of Quito, Ecuador. International Journal of Architectural Heritage, 15(7), 1043–1057. https://doi.org/10.1080/15583058.2019.1665142
Iftikhar, R. (2019). Lahore Fort-a Mughal monument on the verge of decline. Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, 56(1), 27–40.
Julià, P. B., & Ferreira, T. M. (2021). From single-to multi-hazard vulnerability and risk in Historic Urban Areas: A literature review. Natural Hazards, 108(1), 93–128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04734-5
Juliá, P. B., Ferreira, T. M., & Rodrigues, H. (2021). Post-earthquake fire risk assessment of historic urban areas: A scenario-based analysis applied to the Historic City Centre of Leiria, Portugal. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 60, Article e102287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102287
Khan, H. A., & Afzaal, K. (2021). Representing religious identity: Lahore Museum, 1960s-1990s. Pakistan Vision, 22(2), 29–42.
Khan, M. M., & Hamid, S. (2017). Standing Buddha sculptures in stone from the collection of Lahore Museum: Study and analysis. Pakistan Heritage, 9, 11–22.
Neto, J. T., & Ferreira, T. M. (2020). Assessing and mitigating vulnerability and fire risk in historic centres: A cost-benefit analysis. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 45, 279–290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2020.04.003
Ouache, R. (2021). An integrated fire risk management of multi-unit residential buildings with smart and green features: machine learning-based framework [Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia]. The University of British Columbia Liberary. https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0397210
Rafi, M. M., Wasiuddin, S., & Siddiqui, S. H. (2012). Assessment of fire hazard in Pakistan. Disaster Prevention and Management, 21(1), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.1108/09653561211202719
Santos, C. C., Correia, J., Correia, A., Meneses, S., & Tavares, P. (2017, June 7–9). Fire risk assessment in old urban areas: Coimbra old town(Paper presentation). 2nd International Fire Safety Symposium. Naples, Italy. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.11/6499
Santos, C., Ferreira, T. M., Vicente, R., & da Silva, J. R. M. (2013). Building typologies identification to support risk mitigation at the urban scale–Case study of the old city centre of Seixal, Portugal. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 14(6), 449–463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2012.11.001
Shahid, S. H., Maqbool, S., & Haseeb, S. (2014). Structural fire safety measures in developing countries: Pakistan-a case study. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology, 4(1), 95–101.
Shan, M., Chen, Y. F., Zhai, Z., & Du, J. (2022). Investigating the critical issues in the conservation of heritage building: The case of China. Journal of Building Engineering, 51, Article e104319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104319
Taimoor, N. (2022, March 25). 10 best historical places in Lahore. https://www.graana.com/blog/historical-places-in-lahore/
The Express Tribune. (2016, June 23). Fire erupts at 500-year-old Sheesh Mahal. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1128979/flames-fire-erupts-500-year-old-sheesh-mahal
The Express Tribune. (2023, May 16). Radio Pakistan attack: Rare handwritten scripts, music records burnt to ashes. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2417082/radio-pakistan-attack-rare-handwritten-scripts-music-records-burnt-to-ashes
The Government of Punjab. (n.d.). Architectural heritage. (n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2024, from https://www.punjab.gov.pk/lahore_architectural_heritage
Venegas, D., Erazo, O., Farías, Ó., Ayabaca, C., & Medina, A. (2020, October 19–23). Fires in world heritage buildings (Paper presentation). Proceedings of Artificial Intelligence, Computer and Software Engineering Advances. Quito, Ecuador. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68080-0_32
Copyright (c) 2023 Muhammad Rizwan Riaz, Jawad Bashir Mustafvi, Muhammad Shajee Ishtiaq
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JAABE follows an open-access publishing policy and full text of all published articles is available free, immediately upon publication of an issue. The journal’s contents are published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license. Thus, the work submitted to the journal implies that it is original, unpublished work of the authors (neither published previously nor accepted/under consideration for publication elsewhere). On acceptance of a manuscript for publication, a corresponding author on the behalf of all co-authors of the manuscript will sign and submit a completed Copyright and Author Consent Form.
Copyright (c) The Authors
