Experts: The protection of sacred wooden monuments in the Czech Republic is insufficient

Hradec Králové - The protection of wooden monuments against fires is insufficient; only 10 percent of significant wooden churches in the Czech Republic have effective fire protection, it was announced today at a professional conference in Hradec Králové. The event is being held in response to the August fire at a rare wooden church in the Třinec area of Guty in the Frýdecko-Místek region.

Participants at the conference agreed that wooden sacral monuments are particularly at risk. Their fire protection is underfunded. "The goal of the conference is to provide current information about the causes of recent events, where we unfortunately lost some valuable monuments, why it was not possible to extinguish them in time, what the technological possibilities are ... and what the current financial options are," said Jiří Balský, head of the Regional Expert Workplace of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) in Josefov in the Náchod region, to ČTK.

The conference includes not only conservationists but also firefighters, representatives of local governments, and other institutions involved in heritage protection.

According to Pavel Jirásek from the company Culture Tech, less than 10 percent of wooden churches in the Czech Republic are protected by automatic fire suppression systems, which are currently considered the most effective. "There are up to 130 of them in the Czech Republic, with dozens being significant. If we equipped 50 with a permanent fire extinguishing system, I would be very satisfied. However, the situation is such that fewer than five are equipped this way," Jirásek stated. According to him, the problem is not only financial but also an insufficient relationship of society to national heritage and the long-term growing debt in fire protection.

One of the best-protected wooden churches in the Czech Republic will be in Hradec Králové. The city, which owns the Church of St. Nicholas from the early 17th century, has invested half a million crowns in an integrated automatic fire protection system, which should extinguish a fire at its very inception. The reconstruction of the monument will be completed next year.

"Only when a disaster happens do things start to move. This year we had Guty, three years ago Libušín in Pustevny. These two buildings were so iconic that they could not just be overlooked," Jirásek said. According to him, conservationists and property owners should take inspiration from Norway. "Extensive projects implemented on the most valuable buildings are richly subsidized by the state, but there are also many smaller projects financed by churches and local communities," he added.