Fire performance

Meeting the same fire performance demands as any other material

The risk of fire is a concern for all buildings and construction sites. Every building material can suffer damage from prolonged exposure to fire: steel buckles, concrete spalls and wood burns. In response, the building industry has developed technologies and evolved building codes over the last half-century to dramatically reduce the negative impacts of fire and help ensure fire-safe construction. This includes taking full advantage of fire-retardant materials, sophisticated fire detection (external link) such as optical smoke sensors, advanced sprinkler and alarm systems and other smart building technologies.

Building codes, in British Columbia, and throughout North America, ensure your safety. They’re a proven set of performance-based objectives that all buildings must comply with. Recent advancements in B.C. and around the world permit taller wood construction. Such code changes are based on rigorous research and developed by experts through a collaborative process that includes input from all segments of the building community.

King David High School | Photo credit: Martin Tessler

Rigorous fire testing of mass timber buildings

Mass timber and tall wood buildings are proven to be fire safe. From cross-laminated timber (CLT) and dowel-laminated timber (DLT) to glue-laminated timber (glulam), mass timber’s strength, resilience and natural fire resistance is being backed up by some of the most comprehensive real-world testing scenarios to date.

Time and time again, testing shows 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 a building safely. In fact, a recent series of national mass timber fire tests, dubbed the Mass Timber Demonstration Fire Test Program (external link), show—even in worst-case fire scenarios—mass timber buildings provide strong fire performance similar to non-combustible construction. The bottom-line results: even under those rare conditions when fire services don’t intervene, the mass timber fire decays and begins to put itself out after ignition.

“These tests are giving municipalities, code officials, fire services and insurers a lot of good information—and it was really helpful that many of these folks were able to see the tests as they were conducted. It is becoming clearer through this research that mass timber buildings perform well and these buildings aren’t going to be any more difficult to put out a fire than a steel or a concrete building, when built to best practice standards,” says Steven Craft a fire engineering expert and founding principal at CHM Fire Consultants Ltd., one of the firms contributing to the fire test analysis and final report.

Handy tool helps designers meet codes using wood

CodeCHEK, developed under the WoodWorks BC program by the Canadian Wood Council allows users to test which type of wood construction can meet code and fire protection requirements. From light-frame wood and heavy timber to exposed and encapsulated mass timber, this tool can help troubleshoot different design options and evaluate which wood elements are permitted.