Timber frame and the risk of fire

The annual fire statistics monitor, published by the Communities Department show timber framed buildings suffer more damage from fire than other forms of construction in England.
The data indicates that timber frame buildings under construction suffer a higher number of fires compared to other forms of construction. One in every eight fires on half-completed buildings were being constructed from timber frame.

In 2009-10 there were 50 fires in half built timber frame buildings compared with 400 fires in other forms of incomplete construction. Interestingly the comparison between completed buildings is much different. There is only one fire in a timber framed building for every fifty nine other forms of construction. There was a total of 802 fires in timber frame buildings and 47,600 fires in other forms of construction.

When looking deeper it is revealed that a fire starting in a non completed timber frame building is likely to be more extensive by a significant margin with 46% of damage being greater than 10 m2. This is considerably more than other forms of construction. In fact more than a quarter of all fires in partially and fully completed buildings resulted in damage in excess of 200 m2.
There does not appear to be any difference in the casualty rates for all types of construction.