Old town of Bern: Fire protection project progressing sluggishly
Just over a year ago, the CasaSegura association launched an innovative fire protection concept for the historic old town in Bern. But the project is going rather slowly.
The Lower Old Town in Bern has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1983. It was devastating that more than twenty years ago there was a blaze in the historically valuable walls of the Junkergasse. The sad result of that time: one human life, several injured and five destroyed old town houses. The damage to property amounted to several million francs.
Radio smoke detector technology in use
A major fire in a narrow old town is also a horror scenario for emergency services and fire protection experts. An event like the one in 1997 should never happen again in Bern's old town. But it was not until 2017 that a concept was finally launched to prevent such an inferno of flames as far as possible in the future (see also SafetyForum, issue 4/17).
A little over a year ago, on the initiative of the Gebäudeversicherung Bern (GVB), the Verein CasaSegura founded. It provides better fire protection in the Lower Old Town by helping property owners install and operate a modern smoke alarm system. The "CasaSegura" solution, which is voluntary for property owners, always covers an entire building. The radio smoke detectors are used in particular to equip the stairwell, basement rooms and the attics, which have a lot of wood. The fire protection concept does not include the individual apartments, for which the owners are responsible themselves in terms of fire protection.
Potential is 500 buildings
The "CasaSegura" project is primarily based on smoke alarm radio technology. This can be installed easily and without damaging the often listed building fabric. The radio smoke detectors are networked with a transmission box on the first floor of the respective property. In the event of a fire, this automatically alerts the operations control center of the Bern Fire Department via GSM, which should arrive on site within ten minutes at the latest.
According to those responsible for the project, three pilot plants and ten standard plants are currently in operation, demonstrating that the technology works without interference. Around 20 more systems are to be added by the end of 2018. The properties of the city of Bern and the Burgergemeinde Bern are also to be equipped with radio smoke detectors if they do not already have a fire alarm system, as the CasaSegura association writes.
When asked, Markus Caflisch from CasaSegura said that they would have liked to be able to equip more properties. Caflisch estimates the potential at about 500 buildings. "A lot of convincing is needed," Caflisch said. According to him, the system costs for an average property are a good 10,000 francs. GVB contributes 25 percent of this amount.
In addition to the GVB, the members of the CasaSegura association are the Bern Municipality, the Burgergemeinde Bern, the Hausigentümerverband (HEV) Bern und Umgebung and the Vereinigte Altstadtleiste.
Historic building burned during reconstruction
The fact that fire alarms are particularly necessary in an old town is also shown by this example: On Monday, July 9, 2018, the Bern professional fire department had to deploy to the lower old town. The attic of the historic building "Morellhaus" on Postgasse was on fire and six people from the neighboring building had to be evacuated for safety reasons. On July 11, the Bern Cantonal Police was also able to announce the cause of the fire: According to this, the fire was caused by a technical defect in a temporary electrical installation.
The plan for this historic building owned by the city is to install modern smoke alarms, Caflisch says. But the building is currently being renovated and a corresponding system has not yet been installed.
