Tools for Fire Safety in Historic Buildings: Review

Using technologies such as BIM, HBIM, and VR has great potential in applying and managing fire safety in built heritage. This review aims to update the progress of studies and analyse the innovative firefighting tools and methodologies involved in historic buildings. A total of 78 articles were initially selected, and 33 relevant studies were analysed after critical analysis. The database used was Scopus, with date restrictions from 2016 to 2022. The results indicate that most of the approaches to evaluate the use of innovative tools in analysing fire safety in historic buildings were developed recently. The collected articles presented interventions that can be grouped into two approaches, Evacuation and Risk Assessment. While the studies that involve analysing the behaviour of building occupants during an evacuation process and surveying the physical state of buildings in a fire risk assessment system stand out, other studies have highlighted the need to improve interoperability between software. The continuity and deepening of the theme, with the aim of promoting the safeguarding of buildings and their users, allows the envisioning of a safe future of historical and cultural heritage.