When the Campbell government raised the allowed height of wood buildings to six stories, the idea was to spark timber sales and construction activity. But a lot of people are likely to get burned, safety experts have told ace reporter Sean Holman.

At six stories, all-wood buildings are more likely to buckle in an earthquake, pose a bigger fire hazard, and be harder to evacuate once ablaze, experts say in a January 29 post on Holman’s highly read blog Public Eye Online.

The new “wood-centric” regulations for new private buildings were passed after heavy lobbying by B.C.’s timber industry. But here are just some of the concerns sourced voiced to Holman:

"Many fire departments do not have the training or resources to respond" to fires in building of that height, wrote Stephen Gamble in a September letter to the government. Gamble chairs British Columbia's fire services liaison group and is president of the Fire Chiefs Association of B.C.

"I have talked to a lot of building officials. I've worked for a lot of building departments in four states in the past 20 years. And nobody even wants to talk about six wood" because of its "inherent dangers," said Greg Fox, a plans examiner for Des Moines, Washington, a state where all-wood buildings can’t be above five stories.

"That's really, really stretching what you can do with wood. I would never recommend it. I don't think it can be as steady or safe a construction as you could get from some other kind of construction,” Holman quotes SeaTac assistant building official Robert Kingsley.

"At some point it doesn't become economically reasonable to stack up that much wood. And it doesn't perform very well for you. If you have shrinkage, if you don't design properly, it will cause you problems with your construction - cracking, settlement, whatever," said Portland chief engineer Jed Sampson.

"I'm not willing to go there. I think you guys are brave. We'll watch you guys," said Seattle principle engineer and building official Jon Sui. "Myself, I'd be a little nervous about it -- probably more than a little.”

Holman’s post goes on to raise questions about the structural analysis used by the B.C. government to make its decision.

Yesterday, Holman posted a follow-up in which B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman tells him that five and six storey wood-frame buildings will be gradually phased in “to make sure we do this right.”

But, Holman adds, “he said there will be no legal requirement for that to happen, acknowledging such buildings could be constructed as soon as the BC Building Code amendments allowing them come into effect.”

"There's always going to be, when change comes, some group that says the sky is going to fall,” Coleman told Holman, who also is legislative reporter for 24 Hours Vancouver. “But the fact of the matter is we can build six storey wood-frame construction in British Columbia safely. And we're going to do that."

David Beers is editor of The Tyee. Sean Holman is editor of Public Eye Online, legislative reporter for 24 Hours Vancouver, and an occasional contributor to The Tyee.