Post-fire Assessment of Heritage Timber Structures

Abstract

Nowadays built heritage is exposed to numerous risks, as earthquakes, floods, landfall, fires, climate changes. The great fire of Notre Dame, as well as other recent fires, testimony that the fire is still one of the most worrying risks for the cultural heritage buildings. Although many causes can lead to the fire trigger, in the context of heritage buildings the timber structure are often involved. After fire, due to the lack of knowledge, funds or time, designers usually decide for the removal of the damaged structures. However, in such a way the heritage value of the building is compromised since the evidence of traditional and ancestral construction techniques is lost. To address this need, the assessment of the fire damage on timber structures is focused herein. Reference is made to the case study of Palazzo Carafa di Maddaloni, a XVI century monumental building of the historical centre of Naples. On June 2018 the roof structures was involved in a great fire that compromised most of the XIX timber structures. The methodology set up and applied is based on the in-situ application of visual inspection and size measurement, allowing for the identification of the extent of fire damage and residual capacity of structures.