The Mysuru Palace Board’s decision to establish a permanent fire station to handle any fire-related emergency has failed to take into account the findings of the first and the only ‘fire load study’ of the palace.
The board, in its meeting on Friday, decided to station a fire tender on the palace premises after the outbreak of fire in the early hours of the day, which damaged the guards’ room and an ATM kiosk.
But the board is oblivious of the findings of the ‘Fire Load Study of the Mysuru Palace’ conducted by a team of experts led by N. Suresh, Director, Building Fire Research Centre, National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru. The study spanned 6 to 8 months and entailed covering every sq. ft of the iconic structure, which draws nearly 3.5 million tourists every year and has immense cultural and heritage value. “We collected data pertaining to every movable and immovable property in the palace. From this data, the volume of the total combustible material per sq. ft was arrived and the fire load — an estimation of the severity of the heat generated from a particular area in case of a fire — was computed,” explained Dr. Suresh.
Estimating fire load of a structure is an extremely scientific exercise conducted by technically qualified persons and without it all fire preventive measures such as stationing fire tenders will be futile. “The fire extinguishers should have the capacity to douse flames and curb the intensity of heat emanating from a given area, which could be high or low depending on the fire load,” he said. “But if the fire load is not estimated, installing any equipment is at best a gamble.”
But there is a perception that random installation of a few portable fire extinguishers along with an automatic fire and smoke detection system is what constitutes confirming to fire safety rules, but it is not the case, he added. The fire load study of the Mysuru palace has established the intensity of heat that could emanate from each section, including from the trophy room, durbar hall, lounge on the 1st floor, 2nd floor, mezzanine floor, and lift room.
This has helped identify highly-sensitive areas within the palace. The data can help initiate additional precautionary measures as different intensity or class of fire require different fire fighting equipment. Alternative mechanisms in fire fighting are a must as sprinklers could damage paintings while chemical sprays could damage other cultural properties, says Dr. Suresh. While Friday’s fire was minor, it is pertinent to recall that the present palace was built on the ashes of the previous wooden palace, which was gutted in 1897 thus obliterating a slice of heritage for ever.
