Page 26 - EngineerIT February 2022 UPDATED

FIRE SAFETY

Houses of Parliament blaze highlights

need for fire protection

By CEO Michael van Niekerk ASP Fire*

anuary has again raised the issue of National Council of Provinces, the upper JW Jagger Library. Built in the 1930s, it
protecting heritage structures and house of Parliament. is home to many international research
Jother buildings containing priceless The original parliament building collections, with an estimated 85 000
artefacts or documents, from fire risk. was designed in a neoclassical style that items in total.
The fire is believed to have started on incorporates elements of Cape Dutch It is particularly challenging
the third floor of the National Council of architecture. The later additions were where you have a building that did
Provinces building before spreading to the designed to blend in with the original not necessarily have fire resistance
office space and gymnasium and then the building. The Houses of Parliament have measures incorporated into its design.
National Assembly building, which was received Grade 1 National Heritage Status Key consideration with a heritage building
completely gutted. by the South African Heritage Resources is whether it has been adapted from its
The Houses of Parliament consist Agency (SAHRA), its highest rating. original function and construction, or
of the original building, completed in In mid-April last year, a fire originating if it is a relatively new building that can
1884, and additions built in the 1920s at Table Mountain eventually swept onto accommodate such measures.
and 1980s. These house the National the upper campus of the University of The construction materials used in
Assembly, the lower house of the Cape Town (UCT). It caused extensive older buildings are often not in line with
bicameral Parliament of South Africa, damage to the African Studies Library modern regulations. Complicating the
while the original building houses the reading room, known previously as the issue is that heritage buildings are difficult

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