Inadequate safeguards against fire

Many features of building construction are closely related to fire safety. Although the modern types of construction generally contain much less combustible material than the old plank-on-heavy-timber or joisted brick-walled buildings, they collapse much sooner when exposed to fire temperature. Unprotected steelwork fails at relatively low temperatures. In cases requiring fire-resistant construction such as hazardous occupancies, vital occupancies such as storage rooms, transformer rooms, electrical substations, laboratories, high-value occupancies where any serious fire would cause excessive property damage and production loss, and in multistorey buildings, fire-resistant construction is not always used.

In the UK in 1990 some £3.5 billion of military equipment was held in stores which did not meet government fire protection standards.