Fire risk assessment in old urban areas: Coimbra old town

Abstract

The fire risk assessment in old urban areas is a matter of concern both for those responsible for civil protection, and also for all inhabitants. These concerns range from the degradation of the old structures, bad electrical facilities, absence of detection systems and fire-fighting systems, lack of access for fire fighters’ vehicles, amongst others. Another major concern is that these urban centers present great heritage and cultural values. This study is based on a fire risk analysis on the historic old town of Coimbra, which was recently classified as World Heritage by UNESCO. In this study, fire risk assessment methods as GRETENER and ARICA were used with the purpose of obtaining values of the level of fire safety of buildings. After this analysis and knowing the results of methods, this study also aimed to point out measures to be implemented to improve the fire safety in the studied area.