The non-renewable cultural heritages and historic buildings bear human civilization. The protection of ancient buildings are gaining more attention around the world in recent days.What the fire safety measures taken to protect cultural relics and buildings of Zhejiang Province? Take a look at the ways adopted by three different cultural relic protection units, i.e. Lingyin Temple of Hangzhou City, Tianyi Pavilion of Ningbo City, and She People Ancient Town of Jingning She Autonomous County. 

Lingyin Temple of Hangzhou

With a history of about 1,700 years, Lingyin Temple sits in the woods beside the West Lake in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Its temple buildings, ancient trees and stone pagodas are all of precious value.

The burning of candles in front of the Buddha statue has been strictly prohibited for over decades. The temple is installed with intelligent firefighting equipment. The power utilization and firefighting facilities can be observed in real time via an APP. Each room is outfitted with air circuit breaker to prevent overload. And all electric vehicles are charged concentratedly at a zone with intelligent charging piles.

The personnel assigned by the temple conduct fire patrol daily. Upon the discovery of any hidden fire hazards, they will record, report and rectify the problem immediately.

In 2009, the temple built a volunteer fire-fighting brigade, and organized the members to get trained in fire-fighting skills, physical agility and fire safety instructions. At present, the volunteer fire-fighting brigade of 26 members and security team of 29 members have cooperated with the fire-fighting brigade of the scenic spot, the forest fire prevention team, and the volunteer fire-fighting brigade of the mini fire station in the adjacent temples in building a mechanism for joint fire safety service and action.

Tianyi Pavilion of Ningbo

Founded in 1561 during the Ming dynasty, the Tianyi Pavilion (Chinese: 天一阁) is a library and garden located in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province. And it is the oldest existing library in China.  The pavilion was listed into the first batch of cultural relics with top-class safety risks by the Ministry of Public Security and National Cultural Heritage Administration in 1992.

In the past, most libraries were destroyed in fires. The secret for Tianyi Pavilion to survive for over 450 years lies in that smoke and wine are prohibited from taking into the building.

Since 1995, its management department has completed an overall rectification of all electrical circuits, and made certain that the rubbish is cleaned by specifically-assigned personnel to avoid fire hazards incurred by the piling of combustibles. During Spring Festivals, notifications on the prohibition of fireworks and crackers will be issued to the residents in surrounding areas.

Qianyi Pavilion is not only a relic-museum, but also an AAAA scenic spot. Smoking and daily fire use by staffs all would incur potential hazards. Therefore, the staff has posted “no smoking” signs on eye-catching places; full-time patrol team have been assigned at open zones for the supervision of tourists; a special zone for the living power utility has been set for the staff and the private installation of any electric equipment is strictly prohibited. During non-working hours, all power sources are cut off.

According to the requirements for Class I risk prevention, Tianyi Pavilion are installed with the automatic fire alarm system, fire-pump room, fire hydrant water supply and fire extinguishing system; the warehouse is equipped with automatic fire extinguishing system of gas and other places are configured with corresponding fire extinguishers. After the introduction of ISO management system in 2004, it sets corresponding ledgers for timely recording, while implementing each arrangement of the system.  

She People Ancient Town of Jingning She Autonomous County

Dajun Village in Jingning She Autonomous County of Lishui City is an ancient town of She people, now inhabited mainly by elderly people. 

Today all the houses in the village have been installed with smoke detector alarms. In the past, one could easily see privately connected and configured electric wires as well as aged, damaged, and overcharged ones in the place. Some villagers kept firewood-burning mud stoves, and some firewood was piled beside the stove, posing a high risk of fire hazard.

In light of this situation, the fire department required villagers to renovate the old electrical circuits, and intructed them to set up the kitchen in next to the outer wall. With regards to the old homesteads functioned as inns and catering premises, the fire department demanded the adoption of incombustible solid wall to isolate kitchen from other parts of the building.

All resident houses and business premises are installed with fire-fighting equipment. Key units are installed with independent smoke alarm, indoor fire hydrant system and automatic fire alarm system to ensure the safety of the ancient town.

(Executive Editor: Yongliu He)