Due to changes of regulations and product development among other things, the number of multi-storey buildings of timber frame or heavy timber construction has increased consistently in the last two decades. The use of a combustible materials in the structure and the relatively short history with such buildings, has led to insurance related questions regarding risks of property loss. Studies of damages in real fire incidents, where a fair comparison between the fire performance of modern multi-storey timber buildings is made, were lacking. In this study damage data of fire incidents from the USA, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand were found and analyzed. Using different methods the extent of fire damage or the financial damage was compared for fires in multistorey buildings of timber construction types and fires in multistorey buildings of other construction types. For each database a qualitative assessment of the reliability and the fairness of the comparison was made. Also, a comparison, for which only a limited number of fire incidents was available, was made between damages caused in sprinklered fires and damages caused in non-sprinklered fires. In addition to the comparative study also qualitative analysis of 33 high damage fire incidents in multistorey timber buildings was made. The goal of this assessment was to identify the most important details to prevent high damage fires.