Chiltern International Fire Ltd has attacked an article in Building magazine which implies timber frame buildings are a fire risk.
The company’s principal engineer Mostyn Bullock said a number of points made in the article were either inaccurate or untrue and a complaint has been made to the editor.
The article, which followed a workshop at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) focusing on fire risks in combustible cavities, said shoddy workmanship is leaving timber frame buildings exposed to heightened risk of fire.
Mr Bullock said: “We strongly feel that a certain amount of journalistic licence has been employed in order to dramatise the article.
“As a result, the workshop proceedings have been presented out of context and a false emphasis has been placed on the manner in which information was presented by the project team and subsequently discussed with the delegates.”
The article says timber frame buildings are a fire risk because their cavities are lined with combustible materials and that blazes in the BRE‘s TF2000 fire tests re-ignited after being doused by the fire brigade because of smouldering timber in the wall cavity.
However, the BRE says these tests were successful and proved that timber frame withstood fire at least as well as other building types.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which now handles building regulations, assured that the fire risk in timber frame houses was no greater than in other methods of construction.
The UK Timber Frame Association said the issue of poor workmanship in the installation of cavity barriers for fire protection is an “industry wide problem and not one which is specific to timber frame”.
Building technical editor Andy Pearson stood by the article’s conclusions and refuted a timber sector comment that the magazine had a ‘brick and block constituency’.
