?Water mist? for fire protection of historic buildings and museums

Abstract

Recent experimental work on fine water sprays indicates that they may have a considerably wider application in the fields of fire extinction and combustion suppression than previously anticipated and therefore may represent a new fire suppression agent. The present work outlines the characteristics of fine water sprays as fire suppressants, the extinguishing properties of fine water sprays in general, and the properties of particular interest to historic buildings and museums. To illustrate a practical application, some details of the on-going fire protection programme of the Norwegian Stave Churches are provided, while the perspectives of using ‘water mist’ for suppressing fires in other historic buildings and museums are discussed. Though there are still uncertainties as to the transferability of the technology from one application to another, and there is a need for more experimental and theoretical work, fine water sprays seem to represent an interesting approach for fire protection of historic buildings and as a potential replacement for Halon in museums.