When Fire Strikes the Memory of Lesser-known Communities 
The Uffizi Cyberattack: a Warning for Heritage Institutions, but not a simple story 
March 2026 War Damage: Drone Strikes Devastate Cultural Heritage in Ukraine, Iran, Israel & Lebanon 
Fire at Venice Biennale’s Serbia Pavilion (Italy) 
Widespread damage to Iran’s cultural heritage reported amid military conflict: 56 sites affected 
World Cultural Heritage Losses
This project records losses, damage, and destruction affecting World Cultural Heritage and other culturally significant places around the world. It...
Fire at Odeon Building – George Town, Penang, Malaysia
The rapid response of emergency services, the incident resulted in the death of a construction worker from Myanmar, trapped within...
The Pattern of Vulnerability: Recent Fires in Abandoned Historic Buildings
Key Recent Incidents LocationBuildingDateStatusKey DetailsPoughkeepsie, NY, USAHudson River Psychiatric Center (Avery/Admin Building)June 3, 2026DestroyedNational Historic Landmark designed by Thomas S....
Nine Japanese Shrines and Temples Lost to Fire in First Five Months of 2026: Context and Ongoing Protection Efforts
Complete Timeline: 9 Fires (January–May 2026) Note: Most of the 2026 fires remain under investigation by local authorities. Confirmed causes should...
The Paradox of Strategic Function: The Case of Beaufort Castle and the Ineffectiveness of International Protection in Warfare
The recent worsening of the damage suffered by Beaufort Castle (Qal'at al-Shaqif), in southern Lebanon, raises a fundamental question for...
Miyajima’s Reikado Hall Fire: What the Loss of a Sacred Wooden Landmark Reveals About Heritage Risk
This event is more than a local incident: it is a case study in the fragility of sacred wooden heritage,...
Worship Centers Under Fire: From Japan’s Atago Shrine to Mozambique’s St. Louis de Montfort Church
Fire is arguably the greatest single threat facing cultural heritage. In 2026, this risk is increasingly concentrated in worship centers:...
Smoke and Radiative Heat: The Hidden Damage After the 1996 Fire at Iglesia de la Compañía (Quito, Ecuador)
On January 31, 1996, at 11:10 local time, a fire ignited inside the Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, one...
The Montenach Fire: A Case Study in WUI Risk for Cultural Heritage
The fire that destroyed the Saint‑Cyriaque church in Montenach (Moselle, near the French–Luxembourg border) on April 30, 2026 is a...
Heritage Safety in the Age of Compound Risk
Historic buildings and cultural sites are no longer exposed to one dominant threat at a time. In recent months, this...
Cybercrime & Historic Sites — the April 2026 San Marco Anti‑Flood System Incident
The April 2026 incident involving the 'Infrastructure Destruction Squad' (aka 'Dark Engine') serves as a critical warning for heritage site...
Why Cultural Heritage Safety Engineering Still Struggles to Be Recognised
Why universities, heritage institutions, and project governance still fail to treat it as a discipline in its own right In...
Temporary use and events in heritage buildings: hidden fire risks before, during, and after opening
Why temporary use is a distinct fire-risk phase The Cappella della Sindone fire is the clearest case to quote because...
BIM/GIS Fire-Risk Models for Heritage: Why Interoperability Is Still the Core Problem
Recent research on BIM and GIS for heritage fire-risk assessment has produced promising results, but one issue continues to dominate...
When Fire Strikes the Memory of Lesser-known Communities
Fires don't just erase homes and landscapes: they can destroy archives, symbolic places, and traces of local identity that will...
Teotihuacán Shooting: a Warning for Heritage Security
On 20 April 2026, a shooting at the Teotihuacán archaeological site in Mexico turned a major heritage destination into the...
Fire Risk during Renovation of Historic Buildings
Historic buildings under renovation are often at their most fragile the moment we believe they are being “made safer.” Several...
Fire Safety in Cultural Heritage Buildings: Beyond Compliance, Toward Protection
Fire is arguably the greatest single threat facing cultural heritage. From the catastrophic 2018 fire at the National Museum of...
Fire at Rio de Janeiro Olympic Velodrome (Brazil)
A fire broke out at the Olympic Velodrome in Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Park on April 8th, 2026 morning, damaging...
The Uffizi Cyberattack: a Warning for Heritage Institutions, but not a simple story
On 2026, the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, became the focus of a cyberattack story that quickly moved beyond technical disruption...
Mitigating Water Damages to Cultural Heritage: Strategies and Firefighting Solutions
Water remains the most pervasive threat to cultural heritage, as outlined in our previous analysis "Water: the Most Common Enemy...
When Historic Spaces Become Event Venues: The Fire Risk Hidden Behind Special Occasions
From the Braidense controversy to Turin’s lesson, why dinners, catering, and temporary setups can turn a heritage interior into a...