Ryan, I will have to beg to differ as to the performance of these joists, and other wood products, in fires.
People see wood, and they think of a blazing campfire. The fats is, as demonstrated daily in ASTM fire tests of various assemblies, wood generally chars, slowly burning through and gradually losing strength. Wood also is a poor heat conductor, so the heat of the fire is not transferred nearly as quickly through the material as it would be with metal.
The bigest surprise is that, where the strengths of the materials are comparable, and especially in a "load bearing" application, wood constructions have a performance in these fire tests virtually identical to steel.
(Not to write steel off....steel can be much, much stronger, allowing for grearer spans, etc.)
I have seen this with all forms of wood products, be they timber, plywood, or engineered.
