As I understand it, fire behaves in ways that sometimes seem to be the opposite of "what common sense would tell you."
In actual fire tests, wood framed walls perform identically as walls with light steel framing. Indeed, contrary to popular expectations, the wood members don't burn, so much as slowly char away.
This all changes if there is active airflow across the wood. That's why draft stops and fire blocks are so critical. Again, testing showed the old practice of blocking every 4 ft was no more effective than blocking every 8 ft, so the requirement was dropped. We now 'block' only at each floor level.
It is correct to note that the vast amount of fuel is in the contents, rather than the building itself.
It is also quite correct that we need to know more than just the electrical code!
