Fire risks of timber buildings

Recently, there has been a growing interest in ecology and the environment, which is why wooden buildings are becoming increasingly popular. In the Czech Republic, there are opinions that the fire safety design of timber buildings is too strict, mainly because of the restrictive fire height (≤ 12 m). There are more requirements that seem to be too high comparing to noncombustible buildings, for example type of construction system, fire load, degree of fire safety, fire resistance of building structures, fire separation or falling out of burning parts. These requirements are briefly described in this paper. Another part of the paper is devoted to a case study. This case study consists of a building with offices and shops. Requirements of Czech regulations for fire safety design of timber buildings are implemented in this case study together with regulations of selected foreign countries (Great Britain, Canada, USA and Austria) to see if Czech design is strict or not. Graphical results (height of building and fire separation) are given at the end.