{"id":780295,"date":"2025-03-25T16:06:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T16:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?p=780295"},"modified":"2025-03-26T08:04:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T08:04:17","slug":"before-you-design-in-timber-ask-how-a-fire-would-be-tackled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/before-you-design-in-timber-ask-how-a-fire-would-be-tackled","title":{"rendered":"Before you design with timber, ask how a fire would be tackled"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reducing the carbon footprint of construction involves the replacement of concrete and steel with timber. That\u2019s a given. But, for the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS), the implications of this change are complex and far reaching. Yes wood burns, but the challenges stem from \u2018how\u2019 it burns, how it loses strength under the action of heat, where it is in the building, what\u2019s attached to it, how it is used to form walls, ceilings and floors and, moreover, whether the fire service has sufficient resourcing, training and funding to be effective in this new era of public sector cuts.<\/p>\n<p>To enable and future-proof the greater use of timber, architects have a crucial role in strengthening overall building resilience through design. The phrase \u2018hope for the best, prepare for the worst\u2019 seems apposite and, in future, when citing the FRS in building applications, architects might now have to \u2018court\u2019 the intervention they would be seeking in the event of a fire by designing in features that will support the safety and effectiveness of the FRS.<\/p>\n<p>A good place to start is the <a href=\"https:\/\/asbp.org.uk\/project\/mass-timber-insurance-playbook\"><em>Mass Timber Insurance Playbook<\/em>,<\/a> freely downloadable from the website of the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products. This provides a framework for designers of timber buildings to work to with the objective of ensuring not only that the delivered building supports FRS operations, but is insurable.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Playbook<\/em> promotes early and ongoing engagement with all stakeholders, including FRS, and promotes measures designed to keep the fire small, support safe access and building stability and resource firefighting operations by options that might include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Giving attention to fire service vehicle access and water provision<\/li>\n<li>Installing fire sprinklers<\/li>\n<li>Designing to ensure the structure is built of non-combustible materials (concrete and steel), with dominant timber use in floor-plate infill<\/li>\n<li>Selecting to use non-combustible materials (concrete) in key areas such as in the building cores, ground floor and (eg) alternating floor plates<\/li>\n<li>Providing dry and wet risers (internal firefighting water supplies)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It might seem counterintuitive but, by improving resilience, each of these measures helps to enable greater use of timber. So why is such an approach necessary when designing largely timber buildings?<\/p>\n<p>There are various reasons for this, including the fact that wood will be replacing materials that last significantly longer in a fire, the fact that several timber construction methods create combustible voids and that wood can smoulder for hours, or even days, often giving few signs of its presence.<\/p>\n<p>Unless these material and detailing differences aren\u2019t specifically ameliorated by the architect, the risk is that fires will be more prevalent, larger and harder to tackle, with potentially less of the building remaining afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>Other factors involved in the transition to a net zero future \u2013 energy generation and storage systems, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britsafe.org\/safety-management\/2024\/lithium-ion-batteries-a-growing-fire-risk\">lithium battery-powered<\/a> bikes and scooters, to name but a few \u2013 may also compound the situation, changing not only the statistical likelihood of ignition but the aggressiveness of these fire-initiating events.<\/p>\n<p>It will take just one or two significant fires in timber or largely timber buildings to destroy the reputation of construction methods that are much needed to save the planet. There\u2019s a lot at stake.<\/p>\n<p><em>Dr James Glockling is the current chair of BSI FSH\/16 \u2018Hazards to life from fire\u2019 and a visiting professor at the University of Central Lancashire <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reducing the carbon footprint of construction involves the replacement of concrete and steel with timber. That\u2019s a given. But, for the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS), the implications of this change are complex and far reaching. Yes wood burns, but the challenges stem from \u2018how\u2019 it burns, how it loses strength under the action of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81280,"featured_media":780300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[745],"tags":[76153,73595,101455,3147,6155],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Before you design with timber, ask how a fire would be tackled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Architects designing timber buildings actively need to get the fire and rescue service on board, argues Professor James Glockling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/before-you-design-in-timber-ask-how-a-fire-would-be-tackled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Before you design with timber, ask how a fire would be tackled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Architects designing timber buildings actively need to get the fire and rescue service on board, argues Professor James Glockling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/before-you-design-in-timber-ask-how-a-fire-would-be-tackled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-25T16:06:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-26T08:04:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/25153845\/shutterstock_2103308084-1024x683.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Glockling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"will hurst\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/before-you-design-in-timber-ask-how-a-fire-would-be-tackled\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/before-you-design-in-timber-ask-how-a-fire-would-be-tackled\",\"name\":\"Before you design with timber, ask how a fire would be tackled\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-25T16:06:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-26T08:04:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/f7c23d4772522a5c23d6a2bc36064145\"},\"description\":\"Architects designing timber buildings actively need to get the fire and rescue service on board, argues Professor James Glockling\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/before-you-design-in-timber-ask-how-a-fire-would-be-tackled#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/before-you-design-in-timber-ask-how-a-fire-would-be-tackled\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/before-you-design-in-timber-ask-how-a-fire-would-be-tackled#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Before you design with timber, ask how a fire would be tackled\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\",\"description\":\"Architecture News &amp; 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