Fire safety in heritage buildings presents challenges because they were built long before modern fire regulations existed. Many contain hidden voids, ageing electrical systems and outdated compartmentation that can allow fire to spread quickly and unpredictably.
This guide explains why older buildings are harder to protect from fire, the most common risks they face and how UK fire safety regulations apply to historic properties.
Why Are Older Buildings Harder to Protect From Fire?
Many older buildings were not designed with modern fire safety standards in mind. Many pre-date current regulations, meaning compartmentation, detection routes and evacuation strategies often need to be adapted rather than replaced.
What are the common fire risks in older buildings?
Fire risks in older and historical buildings usually come from combinations of small factors:
Hidden voids that allow fire to spread unseen
Aged electrical systems running beyond their design life
Timber roof structures acting as fuel rather than protection
Poor compartmentation between rooms and floors
Delayed response due to unclear alarm procedures
Renovation works that expose combustible materials
What makes fire protection in older buildings different from modern buildings?
Older buildings are not dangerous because they are old. They are dangerous because their complexity is usually underestimated.
Modern buildings are designed with fire in mind all the way from construction. Compartmentation, protected escape routes, non-combustible materials and integrated detection systems are built in from day one. Older historic or heritage buildings were never designed to behave predictably in a fire.
Older buildings contain layers of history: altered layouts, hidden voids, mixed materials, undocumented changes and ageing services. Each one changes how fire develops, spreads and can be controlled.
An Insight into The Current UK Fire Safety Regulations for Older Buildings
FThe Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to older buildings in exactly the same way as modern ones. What changes with historic properties is not the law, but how you interpret, apply and integrate it in a way that respects their complexity and heritage value.
The Responsible Person must ensure:
A suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) is carried out, documented and regularly reviewed, especially after any refurbishment or change in use.
Fire risks are identified, evaluated and reduced to as low as reasonably practicable.
Fire safety measures are maintained, recorded and communicated to occupants and other Responsible Persons where relevant.
Adequate arrangements are in place for evacuation, including clear escape routes, signs and emergency plans.
Fire detection and alarm systems are installed and maintained if the risk demands them.
These duties apply to all buildings covered by the Fire Safety Order (FSO), but in older buildings, they are usually more demanding to implement because of structural complexity.
The full regulations should be consulted and followed to ensure relevant and up-to-date compliance.
Click on this text to edit it.
Click on this text to edit it.
Click on this text to edit it.
Click on this text to edit it.
Click on this text to edit it.
A Real Life Case: Clandon Park House (2015)
Click on this text to edit it.
The Role of Building Age and Hidden Voids
Buildings of this age and construction, in this case approaching 290 years old, typically undergo multiple alterations over their lifetime. Changes in use and the addition of modern services such as heating, plumbing and electrical systems often create hidden voids within the structure.
Some of these voids are known and documented, while others are not, as in many historic buildings, original plans have been lost. These concealed spaces allow fire to spread in ways that are difficult to predict and even harder to control.
Failure of Compartmentation
Although the fire originated in the basement, it was not contained due to the absence of effective fire compartmentation around the electrical installation and adjoining spaces. The lack of adequate fire separation allowed the fire to escape its point of origin and spread quickly throughout the building.
This failure highlights a common issue in historic and older properties. Fire protection measures that may have been acceptable decades ago are often no longer sufficient to manage modern electrical loads or contain fire within complex, layered structures.
Key Fire Safety Lessons for Older Buildings
This incident demonstrates how a relatively small electrical fault can escalate into a devastating fire. In older buildings, understanding how fire will travel through hidden voids and historic fabric is just as important as identifying how it might start.
It reinforces the need for fire safety in historic buildings to focus on real fire behaviour, not assumptions based on modern construction.
Fire Safety in Old Buildings With GRJ Contracting
As we’ve seen, outdated compartmentation, hidden voids and legacy electrical systems can allow fire to spread unpredictably in older buildings. To effectively protect these structures, it requires specialist passive fire protection knowledge and practical expertise.
At GRJ Contracting, we specialise in the design allocation, supply and installation of life-saving fire protection systems for older and historical buildings throughout the UK. We are accredited under recognised third-party schemes, including Kiwa IFC, ASFP and ISO 9001, bringing formal quality assurance and industry-approved standards to every job.
Our qualified passive fire stopping experts strengthen and upgrade older structures where passive fire measures may no longer be fit for purpose. We also ensure ongoing compliance and certification, with our surveying and inspection services that identify breaches in compartmentation.
If you are responsible for an older or historic building and need expert advice on fire compartmentation or legacy fire protection, contact our team at GRJ Contracting today.
Share this post:
