[goodcanadian]

Like all things, it depends. In North America, the vast majority of houses are wood frame. The incidence of deadly house fire remains rare. If you build to code, wood frame houses can be quite safe. As for storm risk, there is a lot you can do to strengthen a wooden house against hurricanes. Cinder block houses lose their roofs just as easily as a wooden house if it is not properly anchored. There are also a lot of places where hurricanes just aren't an issue. Finally, wood generally fares better in an earthquake as it is naturally flexible whereas cinder block houses most assuredly are not.

[conchy]

Over hundreds of years of proximity to nearly limitless natural lumber, North Americans have evolved a highly complex network of water mains, smoke detectors, fire hydrants, and fire fighters to quickly come and put out the fires that inevitably happen before everyone burns because we build nearly everything out of flammable, cheap wood!

Imagine how much money and effort we could save if we build shit of of something that doesn't burn!