The fire safety of two-storey church buildings

Introduction. Two-storey church buildings, that date back to the past centuries, are usually regarded as monuments of history and architecture. Their facades cannot be changed when buildings are adapted for modern use. The ground floor of a church building is used as a warm winter church, and the first floor is an unheated summer church. The evacuation of church members from the ground floor in case of fire is organized in accordance with fire safety regulations. If the area of the upper church floor is 80…200 m2 or more, the number of people may exceed 100 people there. As a rule, the upper church has one evacuation exit, which is contrary to the fire safety regulations, that prescribe the availability of several exits from the upper church floor when the number of people there exceeds fifty. The purpose of the article is to propose fire safety amendments in respect of cultural heritage monuments, so that the acceptable number of people inside a church building, that has one exit, can exceed fifty.
Theoretical foundations of amendments to fire safety regulations. Methods of flexible fire safety control, applied today, allow for the regulatory harmonization of the requirements applicable to the adaptation of immovable cultural heritage for modern use. The level of individual risk is the fire safety criterion for a two-storey church building.
Substantiation of effectiveness of the fire safety system. A system of measures is proposed to ensure the fire safety of two-storey church buildings. The proposals will allow to increase the number of people on the first floor, so that it can exceed fifty. The case of a functional church is analyzed, which demonstrates methods of increasing the number of people inside it to one hundred. The results of modeling the process of evacuation from the upper church floor are presented.
Conclusions. An individual risk, arising in a church building that has one exit, is analyzed, and the implementation of the fire safety criterion is substantiated. Draft amendments to the fire safety regulations have been proposed, so that the number of people inside a church building, that has one exit, can exceed fifty.

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