Wan'an Bridge suffered another fire, which is really distressing, and once again sounded the alarm for the fire prevention of cultural relics.
On the evening of August 6, a fire broke out at Wan'an Bridge in Pingnan, Fujian, a key cultural relics protection unit in China and the longest existing wooden arch bridge in China. The fire was extinguished at 10:45 pm.
At present, the bridge has been burned and collapsed, and no casualties have been reported.
The exact cause of the fire is under investigation.
Wan'an Bridge has a total length of 98.2 meters and a width of 4.7 meters. It ranks first in the country in terms of length, and its bridge-building craftsmanship is also extremely exquisite, making it the most ancient wooden arch bridge in China.
However, the fate of Wan'an Bridge is regrettable.
Wan'an Bridge was built in the Northern Song Dynasty. It was burned in the forty-seventh year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1708), rebuilt in the seventh year of Qianlong (1742), and repaired in subsequent dynasties.
In the life of local people, the wind and rain covered bridge is not only a connection and communication facility, but also a public activity place for people to rest and enjoy the cool and shelter from the wind and rain in their daily life.
Wan'an Bridge suffered another fire, which is really distressing, and once again sounded the alarm for the fire prevention of cultural relics.
Most of the ancient buildings in our country are wooden structures. Once a fire occurs, the loss will be irreparable.
In addition, at the beginning of construction of ancient wooden structures, there were potential fire safety hazards such as low fire resistance level, insufficient fire separation distance, poor fire passage, and serious lack of fire protection facilities.
It can be seen that the fire prevention of wood structure buildings is complex and severe, and the fire safety pressure is huge.
According to the statistics of relevant state units dealing with fire accidents in ancient buildings, my country has handled more than 150 fire incidents of cultural relics in the past ten years, including 21 in 2017, 14 in 2018, 17 in 2019, and 12 in 2020. rise.
It can be seen that with the continuous deepening of cultural relics protection projects and the continuous optimization of intelligent fire protection methods for ancient buildings, the number of fires in ancient buildings has gradually decreased, but it can also be seen from the huge economic and cultural losses that ancient buildings, especially wooden structures The status of the protection of ancient buildings still needs to be improved, and it is still very urgent and important to strengthen the awareness of fire safety in ancient buildings.
The best way to prevent fire in ancient buildings is to install an automatic fire extinguishing system, and the gas fire extinguishing system is the first choice.
Why not use water?
Because water is a kind of damage to the building itself, the accidental fire alarm and the leakage of the pipeline will cause great damage to the ancient building itself, especially the functional building that preserves a large number of cultural relics.
In addition, due to the rapid spread of fire in ancient buildings, it may exceed the fire fighting capacity of water sources, so the system of fire extinguishing with water is not reliable enough to guarantee the success of fire fighting.
In contrast, gas fire suppression systems offer several advantages.
First, the response is sensitive, because the gas fire extinguishing system uses more expensive smoke-sensing components, which are more sensitive than the heat-sensing components commonly used in water systems, and can sense the fire 2 to 3 minutes earlier; second, there is no water damage, disaster After the release, it can return to normal immediately; third, as long as the response is timely, the concentration of oxygen and gas can be reduced in the enclosed space to ensure fire extinguishing.
However, the high cost of gas fire-extinguishing systems places great economic pressure on the comprehensive protection of ancient buildings.
Retreat, you can increase the early warning.
Some experts have said that the safety level of a building depends on its distance from the fire brigade. The closer the distance, the safer it is.
It can be said that the response time of the fire brigade often determines the severity of the fire consequences.
This requires the construction of a fire supervision system in ancient buildings to ensure that the fire department and related departments can observe and eliminate possible safety risks from a distance.
At the same time, there is also a need to improve the level of firefighting in early intervention.
The fire went out of control, largely because the first responders didn't respond properly.
In order to avoid the rush of early rescue, higher requirements should be placed on the quality of emergency responders.
Usually, the fire extinguishing efficiency at critical moments should be improved through drills and the formulation of plans.
The fire of Wan'an Ancient Bridge reminds us that ancient wooden buildings are precious treasures left over from Chinese civilization, and their historical value, cultural value and social value are immeasurable.
No matter which aspect is considered, it is of great significance of the times and practical significance to maximize the overall prevention and control level of fire safety in ancient wooden buildings.
Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News special commentator Zhao Qingyuan (relevant reports see page 04)