HackerTube.dev

Fire test: wooden house vs. ordinary house

Paulius Milčius · 55.2K views · 2017-10-04 · 6:43

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

A short unscientific fire test comparing a massive timber house with an ordinary house. It shows the wood chars and burns slowly while still holding together.

On Hacker News

Linked in threads on wood buildings as a vivid demonstration that heavy timber resists fire and keeps structural integrity.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2019–2021

Topics

Civil engineering & constructionHome, DIY & practical skills
Search by tags
fire testmass timberwood buildingsstructural integrity

What people said

crote · 2019-02 · Recommendation

This is what a forest looks like after a fire: [LINK] . Note that the trees are all still there. Wood is surprisingly difficult to burn, and if it does, it will do so very predictably, slowly, with relatively low temperatures, while maintaining structural integrity. This video makes the difference very clear: [VIDEO] . It's not that wood can't burn, it's that it won't burn significantly.

Read the original HN comment ↗
fy20 · 2021-03 · Reference

Wood can actually resist fires more than other building materials such as steel. Yes it does burn, but it also doesn't lose it's structural integrity when heated: [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
samsk · 2019-01 · Reference

I've found small fire test, its not very scientific, but shows what I was talking about: [VIDEO] To correct myself, its the mortar that doesn't likes the fire much more than pure concrete, therefore brick wall has to be usually demolished after fire. But yes, everything depends on intensity of the fire, but I would never say that (properly built) wood house burns easier or faster than brick house, its kind of a myth. It burns differently with different result, and different kind of damages. Where, in the wood house the damages can be _usually_ fixed easier as in brick house.

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Paulius Milčius, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources