Timber buildings are growing in popularity, but are they safe?

CBS News
November 22, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Builders in Oregon will break ground early next year on this country’s tallest building made primarily of wood. The 12-story, 60-unit apartment complex in Portland called Framework is part of a national boom in wood construction, but some fire experts are raising alarms about the safety of these structures. …Glen Corbett, a fire science professor at John Jay College, thinks wood could fuel an inferno that firefighters can’t fight — like the deadly Grenfell fire in London, which climbed the building’s aluminum cladding. …Architect Peter Weismantle, who helped design the world’s tallest building, also worries that more wood could mean more fire if codes aren’t strictly enforced. “We have got a responsibility to think about all the unthinkable things. So I’m glad there are advocates for timber. But there need to be reasonable control and understanding applied to it,” Weismantle said.

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