Fire - Is there a higher risk of fires in a wooden home?
Fire regulations specify the exact standards required in building materials with regard to fire safety.

In tests carried out on log homes at the Finnish Technical Research Centre, a log wall withstood a fire with a temperature of up to 1100 oC for 113 minutes - far in excess of legal requirements.

Surprisingly, in a direct comparison with steel, wood behaves much better in fire. With wood, the charcoal generated in the combustion process forms a natural insulating layer during a fire. This protects the wood from becoming even hotter, so that the load-bearing capacity is retained practically to the fullest extent. In contrast, steel loses most of its load-bearing capacity at temperatures as low as around 500oC and has to be encased in other construction materials to achieve fire safety values similar to those of wood.


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