Fires During Building Renovations: Learning From Failures to Strengthen Fire Safety

ABSTRACT

Recent fires in buildings undergoing renovation have resulted in severe consequences, including fatalities, the destruction of irreplaceable cultural heritage, and substantial rebuilding and economic costs. This study investigates 11 major fire incidents, mostly recent and involving historic or public buildings, to understand how renovation activities contributed to the severity of these events. The list of international fires includes the 2024 Børsen fire in Copenhagen, the 2019 Notre‐Dame fire in Paris, the 2018 Mackintosh Building fire at the Glasgow School of Art, the 2010 high‐rise apartment fire in Shanghai, the 2007 Cutty Sark in London and the 1994 Gran Teatre del Liceu fire in Barcelona, among others. All fires with known ignition sources were found to have been started by renovation activities. Using the layers of protection framework, a concept well known in safety, each case was analysed to identify where failures occurred and how they contributed to the loss. The analysis revealed that multiple protective layers were typically breached, and that the renovation works themselves often weakened or removed one or two layers in every case. The most compromised layer was prevention followed by compartmentation. Hot work was identified as the most frequent ignition source associated with renovations. Moreover, the study observed an exponential relationship between the number of breached layers and the resulting fire loss. This study presents a systematic analysis of the fire vulnerabilities of buildings undergoing renovation and provides insights into how the fire hazard can be reduced through targeted protection measures.