Fire Protection Strategies and Technologies for Heritage Buildings: Experiences from Guangzhou

Abstract

As the core carrier of Lingnan culture and a nationally famous historical & cultural city, Guangzhou preserves more than 3000 immovable historic buildings, including arcade rows, ancestral halls, Xiguan mansions and modern public edifices. Their brick-timber hybrid structures, high-density “bamboo-tube” street pattern and hot-humid subtropical climate create unique fire challenges. This study systematically summarizes an “inherent-acquired-environmental” superimposed fire-risk mechanism. By integrating traditional Cantonese fire-resistance wisdom—such as Qingyun fire lanes, wok-ear gables and courtyard smoke vents—and heritage-friendly innovations, a three-level policy-technology-management protection framework is established. Hierarchical protection aligned with value grading, life-cycle technology pathways and multi-stakeholder collaboration is proposed. The “minimum-intervention and performance-based” route and the “regulation-guideline-standard” policy loop developed by Guangzhou reduce the fire incidence of priority historic buildings while retaining heritage authenticity, offering a replicable paradigm for balancing fire safety and conservation in hot-humid, high-density contexts.