Fires at Heritage Sites have always presented special challenges to Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) worldwide, not only because of the loss or damage of historical value, but also because of the difficulties in fire-fighting and rescue in such incidents.Their design, construction, layout and fire load are conducive to rapid and uncontrolled fire spread. Lack of separation and compartmentation, dust deposit over the years, the extensive use of untreated timber in construction, difficult access and late detection, have contributed to major fires in Heritage Sites in Europe over the last two decades.HERITPROT, aims at bringing all the knowledge at European level under a one overarching initiative, which can pool together experience, transfer of knowledge, best practices and case studies, which will in turn strengthen the management Heritage Sites risks within the European Union and further afield (Norway).Heritage Cities included: La Laguna, Sighisoara, Cuenca, Riga, Warsaw,Vilnius, Holloko, Bergen, Liverpool, Angra do Heroismo.The cooperation and exchange of experiences of cities classified as World Heritage Sites has allowed the leaders of this initiative to see the potential for working together on matters of fire prevention and action.HERIPROT brings together 10 partners and 9 EU countries which represent regional and local authorities, as well as fire fighting and civil protection institutions. They all possess the required competences to manage prevention and action in the case of fire in World Heritage Cities, but with different levels of experience. While some have suffered fires in buildings or sections of the old quarter which have destroyed their heritage, others are interested in implementing preventative measures to avoid future disasters, based on an exchange of experiences.All the partners will participate in workshops, thematic seminars and study visits, and will develop a joint analysis of potential hazards and prevention measuresin the old quarters of World Heritage Cities in line with the type of building in question. The good practices identified are brought together an interregional good practice manual as a basis of a common method for prevention and action in the case of fire, according to building type.Moreover, in order to validate the method to be used members will develop a pilot experience which will be implemented at the end of the project. In order to guarantee the long-term sustainability of actions promoting prevention and action in the case of fire risk in World Heritage Cities, members will also create implementation and action plans for possible future activities based on the knowledge they have gained from the HERIPROT learning process.A collaboration agreement will be signed by all participating members that will assess the potential for cooperation in the sphere of the prevention and improvement of interventions on the part of fire services in World Heritage Cities. Achievements: The objective of the HERITPROT project is to improve the fire risk prevention of fire extinction systems of the historic town centers of European cities named world heritage. HERITPROT will organize a series of seminars and study visits in partner cities in order to identify good practices that can be transferred into the local/regional/national policies from cities named world heritage or with a relevant historic town centers. The topics to be reviewed within these seminars are: 1). Fire Risk Assessment, Fire Safety and Protection; 2). Fire Fighting and Operations; 3). Damage Control and Salvage; 4). Contingency Planning. After each seminar, each city partner will discuss with their local stakeholders the good practices identified in order to raise awareness of the problems tackled and to establish ownership of the good practices identified. The project activities got started with the first seminar in La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain) in April 2012 which focused on the topic “Fire Risk Assessment, Fire Safety and Protection”. Along with the seminar, several places of La Laguna were visited: i). National archives in order to see in situ the fire preventive measures implemented at La Laguna; ii). Town Centre in order to see in situ the fire preventive measures that are related to urban planning; iii). House of the Archbishop in order to see in situ how the fire was tackled and which fire preventive measures have been installed after its restoration. During the seminar and the study visits of La Laguna, the HERITPROT team identified the following issues: 1). At fire prevention there are general measures applicable to all historical sites and buildings; 2). There should be specific measures for different types of buildings (archives and libraries, museums, houses, etc.); 3). All cities should have documents / plans of fire prevention as auto-protection plans safeguards planning, etc.; 4). All buildings should have special installations for detecting, signalling and stopping fires; 5). There should be specific training for fire-fighters, building responsibles, users, etc. Next, the HERITPROT team met in Cuenca in late June 2012 to expose the contribution of their local stakeholders to the good practices identified at the past seminar at La Laguna. Some important issues were discussed: A). the necessity of moving archives from historic buildings; B). The importance of urban planning in fire prevention; C). The more suitable fire detector systems. The HERITPROT team also visited some places in Cuenca: i). Cathedral of Cuenca in order to see in situ the preventive fire measures implemented by the Cuenca City Council; ii). A practical exercise was implemented at House of the Archbishop of Cuenca in order to see in situ the methodology of the plans for safeguarding the works of arts implemented by the Firemen of Cuenca. Complementary to this, one of the main achievements of this first semester of the HERITPROT project is that it has enabled that several partners who’s Fire and Rescue Services and World Heritage Managers who had never worked together, have started to collaborate to find solutions of fire prevention at their world heritage cities.