Project HERITPROT
“Fire Risk Prevention and Improvement of the Fire Extinction Systems of the Historic Town Centers of Cities named Word Heritage”

Project HERITPROT “Fire Risk Prevention and Improvement of the Fire Extinction Systems of the Historic Town Centers of Cities Named World Heritage”was implemented during 2012–2014. Project partners included world heritage cities: La Laguna (Spain, Leading Partner), Sighisoara (Romania), Cuenca (Spain), Riga (Latvia), Warsaw (Poland), Vilnius (Lithuania), Holloko (Hungary), Liverpool (United Kingdom), Angra do Heroismo (Portugal). Vilnius Old Town Renewal Agency implemented the project together with Vilnius County Fire and Rescue Board.
Participation in the project gave an opportunity to gain valuable experience in organising fire protection in Europe. The exchange of knowledge and experience has led to the creation of over 50 good practices suggested for implementation in historic cities, for the purpose of developing an Action Plan based on a short, medium or long term proposals according to each practice. All good practices of nine European partners are included into the final publication of the project:
A Good Practice Manual for Fire Protection in World Heritage Cities

One of the results obtained, and goals reached in the project has been the consideration of the protection and safeguard of historic heritage; both the properties and also the moveable assets of our cities by means of the Safeguard Plans / Fire Safety Plans, a living document which intends to reflect all of the information that in any given moment may be useful to a fire service intervention in a building, with the aim of minimizing response times and advocating preventive action.

A number of meetings took place in Vilnius including representatives of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, the Department of Cultural Heritage, Vilnius City Municipality, Vilnius museums, libraries and the Church administration to discuss how to improve the safeguarding of Vilnius historic heritage. It was decided to use the project HERITPROT experience and to prepare a Fire Safety Plan for Vilnius Old Town.

Vilnius Fire Prevention Programme (Action Plan) was prepared and approved on 6th of March, 2014. The preparation of Fire Safety Plan of Vilnius Old Town was included into the Programme. Historic buildings will be marked in different colours according to the defined priorities. Urban fabric of narrow streets and yards will be represented, including analysis of traffic, access roads and access to buildings, also the network of fire hydrants. The Plan should be prepared as georeferenced database (GIS) scheme. The preparation of the Plan started in autumn of 2014. Vilnius Old Town Renewal Agency plans to continue co-ordination of the preparation of the Plan, and also co-operation with Vilnius County Fire and Rescue Board,  Ministry of Culture and the Department of Cultural Heritage after the project HERITPROT was finished.

Project is co-financed by the ERDF and made possible by the INTERREG IVC programme.

Project website:  http://www.heritprot.com/node

Jūratė Raugalienė
Co-ordinator of the project
tel. +370 5 212 7723
e-mail j.raugaliene@vsaa.lt

5TH LOCAL FORUM OF HERITPROT PROJECT
(19 09 2013)