Today’s fire halls, police stations, health care facilities, schools and community centres in B.C. are designed to meet rigorous seismic requirements, to withstand the impacts of a natural disaster—and often serve as post-disaster hubs. Increasingly, these facilities are being built with B.C. wood products, using newly developed systems and innovations, offering durability and resilience in the face of earthquakes, wind and fire. These buildings are designed to meet post-disaster standards and can resist seismic forces that are 1.3 to 1.5 times greater than those experienced by standard buildings.
Designing for disaster with wood
A post-disaster building or hub is defined as a facility that is essential to the provision of services in the event of a disaster. This means it will be built to a seismic design load that is considerably higher than typical residential or commercial buildings. After an earthquake, the building will, in an ideal scenario, be able to be safely re-entered and used to deliver emergency services. Other essential service buildings in B.C are also built to post-disaster standards to avoid interruption of critical resources. This includes energy centres, supportive infrastructure and hydropower operations centres. Increasingly, these facilities are being built with wood, offering natural resilience and durability in the face of earthquakes, wind, and even fire. These buildings are designed to meet post-disaster standards and able to resist seismic forces 1.3 to 1.5 times that of a regular building.
One such example is the Merritt Fire Zone Office and Provincial Wildfire Training Centre. The facility provides space for up to 58 staff, storage areas for firefighting equipment and three classrooms to support field training. The courtyard functions as an outdoor training facility, a gathering place for crew members and shelter from the strong westerly prevailing winds. The two-storey structure consists of a glue-laminated timber (glulam)-post-and-beam system with engineered wood trusses and cross-laminated timber (CLT) for the roof and canopy decking.
Other examples include Qualicum Beach Fire Hall, Prince George RCMP Detachment, the Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue Station and the District of Saanich Fire Station #2 Redevelopment soon to be under construction.
Steveston Fire Hall No. 2 interior | Photo courtesy of hcma
Wood’s durability and resilience over the ages
Ancient wood buildings continue to stand including 8th-century Japanese temples, 11th-century Norwegian stave churches, and the many medieval post-and-beam structures of England and Europe. They demonstrate wood is a naturally strong, lightweight, durable and resilient material that has stood the test of time.
We see it in nature. Trees can tolerate great forces inflicted by wind, weather, and natural disasters. This is possible because wood is made up of long, thin, strong cells. It is the unique elongated design of these cell walls that gives wood its structural fortitude. Cell walls are made of cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose. When converted to wood products, these cells continue to deliver lightweight, nimble, structural solutions with a strength comparable to other building materials.
Wood products can withstand considerable force—particularly when compression and tension forces are exerted parallel to the wood’s grain. A single Douglas-fir square, 9 cm x 9 cm, can support nearly 10 tons in tension and compression.
Consequently, despite their lighter weight, wood products can withstand considerable force—particularly when compression and tension forces are exerted parallel to the wood’s grain. Wood’s strength and ability to flex make it well-suited to withstanding earthquakes, when combined with good seismic design.
And today’s modern wood-frame and mass timber buildings have a proven fire safety record. In the event of a fire, mass timber and engineered wood products char on the outside, forming a protective layer while retaining strength. This slows combustion significantly, allowing time to evacuate the building safely. Effective design and the use of state-of-the-art fire protection technologies in timber structures provide added assurance and help save lives. So much so, many B.C. fire halls are built with wood.
Horyuji Temple, Zhenzhong Liu | Photo credit: Zhenzhong Liu courtesy Unsplash
Hybrid-timber-built high-tech fire halls take the heat
Today’s modern fire halls have come a long way from the quaint, masonry structures of the past. Characterized by bold architectural designs, high-tech materials, exposed mass timber, and advanced technologies, these critical civic facilities serve communities every day but also as essential post-disaster hubs for the province.
A most recent example—and thoroughly state-of-the-art interpretation of this building typology—is the newly completed Prince George Fire Hall No. 1. Its hybrid steel, concrete, and wood structure accommodates five truck bays and the latest in modern firefighting equipment. Its resolute contemporary form, clad with a carbon-black coloured siding, features a graceful swoop to its roofline.
Prince George Fire Hall No. 1. | Photo credit: Ed White Photographics
“We created a very simple clean form that, as you drive by, you recognize it, very powerfully as the region’s fire hall,” said Stuart Rothnie, of hcma and principal-in-charge of the project.
“Most people don’t even think about the fire service until they need it, but we felt it was important for the building to have a strong civic identity. It’s reassuring to the community that the facility is there for their safety and protection—something I think the design of the Prince George Fire Hall achieves,” adds Rothnie.
This use of timber is not only an homage to the importance of forest products to the local culture and economy—it demonstrates that wood products are a trusted, fire-safe and durable material well-suited to this building type.
Wood is showcased in the building’s design. The front-entrance feature stairwell makes a bold impression, its nail-laminated timber (NLT) construction literally wraps occupants’ floor to ceiling with the warmth of wood. Crews used more than 100,000 fasteners and over 3,000 pieces of lumber to construct this component of the facility. The large expansive truck bays are constructed using a laminated veneer lumber (LVL) roof. Aesthetically pleasing, the overall use of wood offers visual warmth, complementing the building’s dark exterior cladding. Mass timber products, such as NLT and LVL, are fire-safe—if exposed to flame the materials chars, forming a protective layer.
Prince George Fire Hall No. 1 | Photo credit: Ed White Photographics
Features of the modern fire hall
Serving as a post-disaster facility, the Prince George Fire Hall No. 1 incorporates the use of mass timber along with the latest in fire hall best practices and design.
Bold civic landmark
A thoroughly state-of-the-art interpretation of the fire hall building typology, its contemporary design makes a civic bold statement.
Mass timber hybrid structure
Features a mass timber hybrid roof structure—LVL structure and NLT stairwell—made up of 3,000 pieces of lumber.
Earthquake-resistant
Designed to meet post-disaster standards and able to resist seismic forces 1.5 times those for a regular building.
Post-disaster hub
Serves as a critical gathering hub for key decisions makers in the region in the event of a disaster.
Saanich Fire Station sets new standard for post-disaster readiness
More than 800 km south, near the province’s capital, the District of Saanich is in the design phase of a similar facility, that will feature a hybrid mass timber structure and meet the post-disaster requirements set out by B.C.’s building code.
It is one of the first mass timber buildings in Canada to target a zero-carbon building standard while being fully equipped for post-disaster response. It will serve as a demonstration project and template for future post-disaster buildings. The project will target LEED Gold (with the aspiration to reach Platinum), CaGBC Zero Carbon Building Standard, and the BC Energy Step Code Level 2. The project will replace the present one-storey, 353 square-metre building with a two-storey 2,190 square-metre structure that will accommodate eight apparatus and emergency vehicles.
The choice to use mass timber demonstrates the Saanich Fire Department’s confidence in the material’s safety and performance. “In my experience a lot of the mass timber buildings I’ve responded to after significant fire incidents usually remain standing. Most of the timber or the heavy timber portions are simply just charred, and a good portion of the structural integrity of the building remained,” said Dan Wood the Deputy Fire Chief for the Saanich Fire Department.
District of Saanich Fire Station #2 Redevelopment | Rendering courtesy of hcma
“The choice to use mass timber demonstrates the Saanich Fire Department’s confidence in the material’s safety and performance. In my experience a lot of the mass timber buildings I’ve responded to after significant fire incidents usually remain standing. Most of the timber or the heavy timber portions are simply just charred, and a good portion of the structural integrity of the building remained.”
Dan Wood, the deputy fire chief for the Saanich fire department
The mass timber hybrid building will use a steel and timber post-and-beam system supporting CLT floors, a CLT roof suspended from glulam beams, and a mass timber shear wall. The suspended CLT roof supported by an upstand glulam beam leaves a void that can accommodate additional insulation, improving the overall thermal performance of the building. The suspension system will require a unique connection design replicated through the entire roof and could be developed as a typical connection to be used on future projects. Select portions of exposed mass timber will add warmth and character to the design.
“I’m excited about the use of wood and wood from B.C. Not only is it easy to work with and a lot of the pre-construction of the mass timber systems done offsite—when designed correctly, it can withstand seismic and lateral forces more substantially than steel, and concrete because it weighs quite a bit less and has a little more flexibility,” said Wood.
District of Saanich Fire Station #2 Redevelopment | Rendering courtesy of hcma
Education facilities built for resilience
Today’s schools are increasingly being built to be more durable and withstand the hard knocks of natural disasters, such as earthquakes. Over the past number of years, British Columbia has invested in making the province’s schools seismically sound and in certain cases able to serve as critical post-disaster hubs for the communities they serve.
This is thanks in part to funding provided through Natural Resources Canada’s Green Construction through Wood (GCWood) Program, which encourages the use of wood in non-traditional construction projects, such as tall wood buildings, low-rise non-residential buildings, and bridges. The initiative includes two new schools in the Lower Mainland—Bayview Elementary School and wək̓ʷan̓əs tə syaqʷəm Elementary School—part of a Vancouver School Board pilot project for incorporating mass timber into schools.
Bayview Elementary School Seismic Replacement | Photo credit: Michael Elkan Photography
Bayview Elementary School’s mass timber structure makes for an efficient floor plan on a compact site—the exterior and structural walls, floors, and roof use CLT complemented by glulam columns and beams. Left exposed, the wood adds warmth and character to interior spaces. To foster collaborative learning spaces, classroom volumes are staggered and the corridor widened—allowing for break-out rooms, seating, hang-out space, and a larger learning commons. The library opens up to the corridor for added flexible space and informal learning. The CLT system serves double duty as both gravity and shear walls, to resist the high seismic forces of the region. For the gymnasium and multipurpose room a composite double-T design combines CLT with glulam beams to form 16 metre-long spanning panels.
Bayview Elementary Seismic Replacement, mass timber installation. | Photo credit: Wade Comer Photography
Not far from Bayview Elementary is wək̓ʷan̓əs tə syaqʷəm Elementary School. The new school, which replaces an original structure on the site built in 1922, is part of the B.C. government’s initiative to accelerate seismic safety in schools by means of upgrades and replacements of facilities. It’s long-spanning mass timber forms the school’s quadrant configuration, while accommodating well-designed way-finding through the building with north/south and east/west corridors. Again, CLT serves as both gravity and shear walls, to resist the high seismic forces of the region. Non-structural partitions within the interior accommodate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. Large door openings in the CLT walls connect each classroom with the common spaces of each pod.
The CLT-built structure delivers a cantilevered design for the multipurpose roof, a composite double-T design combining CLT with glulam beams for long-spanning panels. The system accommodates open spaces with a shallow structural depth. For the large gymnasium, long glulam beams are moment connected to create a striking vaulted roof.
wək̓ʷan̓əs tə syaqʷəm Elementary School Seismic Replacement during construction. | Photo credit: Bright Photography
Understanding B.C.’s building code and resilience
The BC Building Code sets out four “importance categories” relating to loads for buildings for resilience and post-disaster readiness. See BC Building Code Table 4.1.2.1. Importance Categories for Buildings for a complete list.
Low
Buildings that represent a low direct or indirect hazard to human life in the event of failure, including low human-occupancy buildings, where it can be shown that collapse is not likely to cause injury or other serious consequences and minor storage buildings.
Normal
All buildings from residential, commercial, office and industrial except those listed in Importance Categories low, high and post-disaster.
High
Buildings that are likely to be used as post-disaster shelters, including buildings such as an elementary, middle, or secondary school or a community centre.
Post-disaster
Post-disaster buildings are buildings that are essential to the provision of services including hospitals, emergency treatment facilities, power generating stations, public water treatment facilities, fire, rescue, and police stations and communications facilities, including radio and television stations.
Energy and operation facilities designed for resilience
Energy and operations facilities are some of the most essential services that need to remain resilient and in working order in the face of disaster. A continuous power supply, clean water, sewage systems and other key utilities are critical to seeing communities through events with impacts that can affect daily life for weeks, even months. And when built with wood and sustainability in mind, these facilities can also contribute to the long-term resilience objectives of curbing emissions and the impacts of climate change.
One example is Alexandra District Energy Utility Expansion, a Richmond-based high-tech geothermal utility building. Wood is used throughout the building, as a structural element and finishing feature. Yellow cedar cladding was used on the exterior, sourced from naturally fallen trees. CLT wall and roof panels and glulam beams and columns were chosen to achieve the significant spans and clear heights required by the large equipment housed inside the building.
Seismically, the building is designed to post-disaster standards, able to resist seismic forces 1.5 times those for a regular building. The CLT system also offers resilience in the form of flexibility and future expansion—it was easy to cut and configure to the complex cabling and pipping in the facility.
Alexandra District Energy Utility Expansion | Photo credit: Michael Elkan Photography
Resilient public infrastructure using mass timber
Mass timber is increasingly being used in public infrastructure throughout the province, its seismic performance backed up by research. Testing shows the seismic performance of mass timber buildings systems, such as CLT platform-type walls, is directly impacted by the choice of connectors and fasteners. FPInnovations studied the seismic performance of 11 different types of CLT walls that can be used for platform-style construction. These configurations included single panel walls with three different aspect ratios, multi-panel walls with step joints and different types of screws to connect them, as well as two-storey wall assemblies.
Results showed that CLT walls can have adequate seismic performance when nails or screws are used with the steel brackets. Use of hold-downs with nails on each end of the wall improves their seismic performance. A key finding: walls with hold-downs offer significantly better seismic performance and improved energy dissipation. To determine how a 3D structure would respond to seismic forces, the FPInnovations team tested a two-storey platform-type CLT house (symmetric in one direction and non-symmetric in the other direction). The structure sustained a combination of rocking and sliding deformations, with the main deformations found in lap-joints, brackets, and hold-downs. Overall, structural integrity was not comprised at failure and the bottom storey experienced a drift of about 3.2 per cent according to a presentation given by Marjan Popovski, lead scientist, FPInnovations.
Wood's resilience and adaptability
Wood structures offer remarkable resilience and adaptability in the face of natural disasters. They are well-equipped to endure earthquakes, high winds, and fires, making them a reliable choice for various environmental conditions. When disaster strikes, whether it’s an earthquake shaking the foundations, strong winds battering the exterior, or a fire consuming parts of the structure, wood stands out for its ability to absorb and dissipate energy, flex and bend without breaking, and resist severe damage.
Steveston Fire Hall No. 2|Photo courtesy of hcma
