Screen walls as a means of improving evacuation safety during fires in religious buildings, using Orthodox churches as an example

Introduction. Ensuring fire safety of Orthodox churches is a complex multi-purpose task that combines the issues of safety of evacuation of people in case of fires, preservation of cultural heritage, compliance with modern technical standards and taking into account the unique architectural and functional features of religious buildings.

The purpose of the work is to develop practical recommendations for the implementation of fire-resistant screen walls, which will ensure safe evacuation routes while maintaining the sacred aesthetics of temples.

Main part. The architectural features of Orthodox churches contribute to the rapid spread of smoke during a fire and complicate the evacuation of people. 
In Orthodox churches, the high fire load is due to the abundance of wooden walls and textile elements, which contributes to the rapid spread of fire and smoke, sharply reducing the time for evacuation.
The use of screen walls was proposed as a means of increasing evacuation safety. The key principle of designing screen walls for Orthodox churches is safe evacuation in case of fire and maintaining the visual integrity of the interior. 
The use of such walls will create conditions for the safe evacuation of people in case of fire, taking into account the development of evacuation models and architectural features.

Conclusions. Screen walls were proposed as a solution for safe evacuation in churches. The developed method of using screen walls for religious buildings using the example of Orthodox churches will create conditions for the safe evacuation of people in case of fire, taking into account developed scenarios and safety zones.

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