Chapter 18: Fire safety of wood construction

Mark A. Dietenberger; Laura Hasburgh; Kara Yedinak

Treesearch

Chapter 18: Fire safety of wood construction

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Mark A. Dietenberger, Laura Hasburgh, Kara Yedinak

Year:

2021

Type:

General Technical Report

Station:

Forest Products Laboratory

Source:

Chapter 18 in FPL-GTR-282

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Download (PDF 1.56 MB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/62268.pdf

Abstract

Fire safety is an important concern in all types of construction. The high level of national concern for fire safety is reflected in limitations and design requirements in building codes. These code requirements and related fire performance data are discussed in the context of fire safety design and evaluation in the initial section of this chapter. Because basic data on fire behavior of wood products are used to evaluate fire safety for wood construction, the second major section of this chapter provides additional information on fire behavior and fire performance characteristics of wood products. The chapter concludes with a discussion of flame-retardant treatments that can be used to reduce the combustibility of wood

Parent Publication

Wood handbook: Wood as an engineering material

Keywords

fire performance, wood, char, ignition, flame spread, wildland urban interface, home ignition zone, flammability, cone calorimetry

Citation

Dietenberger, M.A.; Hasburgh, L.E.; Yedinak, K.M. 2021. Chapter 18: Fire safety of wood construction. In: Wood handbook—wood as an engineering material. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-282. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. 26 pp.