Journal of Architectural Conservation
Volume 15, Issue 2, July 2009
Impacts of Fire on Stone Built Heritage
An Overview
Miguel Gomez-Heras, Stephen McCabe, Bernard J. Smith, Rafael Fort
Paper Summary
Fire is a major threat to stone-built cultural heritage and this paper is a review of the existing research into fire damage on building stone. From early research based on anecdotal evidence of macroscopic observations, scientists have moved on to develop various techniques for approaching the investigation of fire damage to stone (high temperature heating in ovens, lasers, real flame tests), different aspects of the damage that fire does have been learned from each, developing understanding of how microscopic changes affect the whole.
This paper seeks to highlight the need for a greater awareness of the threat that fire poses (and the need to take precautionary measures in the form of fire-suppression systems), of the immediate effects, and of the long-term management issues of natural stone structures which have experienced fire.
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Figure 1 Severely spalled granite as a consequence of an historical fire. The concentrically ‘onion-skin’-like structure of the spalling is especially noticeable in the window arches through which flames may have moved to the exterior of the building.
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Emily Gee
Miguel Gomez-Heras BSc (Hons), EurPhD, FGS
Miguel Gomez-Heras’ research focuses mainly on the impacts of fire and thermal behaviour on stone decay. He participated in the Working Group 2 of COST Action C17 – Built Heritage: Fire Loss to Historic Buildings. He is research fellow in the Weathering Research Group in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast.
Stephen McCabe BSc (hons), PhD
Stephen McCabe is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Weathering Research Group, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast. His research focuses on the impact of complex stress histories on the decay of historic stone-built heritage.
Bernard J. Smith BSc (Hons), PhD, CGeog
Bernard Smith is a professor in Geomorphology and leads the Weathering Research Group, Queen’s University Belfast. His main research interests are in stone decay processes in natural and urban environments, especially salt decay and thermal controls investigated through exposure trials and laboratory simulations.
Rafael Fort BSc, PhD
Rafael Fort is senior researcher and director of the Spanish Instituto de Geologia Economica (CSIC-UCM). His main research interest is in petrological and petrophysical studies of building stone. He also leads the Petrology Applied to Heritage Conservation Research Group at this institute.
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