When firefighters choose to sleep in a wood building

By Cees de Jager, CEO, Softwood Lumber Board & Binational Softwood Lumber Council
LinkedIn
February 25, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

When firefighters choose to sleep in a wood building, that tells you something about how far mass timber has come. Boise, Idaho just opened Fire Station 13, a 10,500 SF facility built with 46 cross-laminated timber panels. As featured in Firehouse Magazine, the project highlights CLT’s predictable fire performance: mass timber forms a protective char layer under fire exposure while maintaining structural integrity, providing additional time and safety in extreme conditions. Boise isn’t an outlier. In Marion, Iowa, Fire Station No. 1 has been operating since 2021, built with mass timber and biophilic design principles specifically to support firefighter wellness and reduce post-traumatic stress. And in Oakville, Ontario, Fire Station 8 was completed in 2020 as one of the first buildings in North America to use glulam and CLT together as a complete structural and envelope system. …Three fire stations. Three communities that evaluated mass timber on its merits and chose it for the buildings where their first responders live and work. 

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