During this MSc thesis it has been carried out an extensive literature review on fire safety engineering, on timber behaviour on fire and on fire safety regulations in different countries. A preliminary design for a high rise cross laminated timber building (CLT) has been carried out in order to obtain a minimum thickness of the structural elements needed for the load bearing structure. This thickness has been verified according to prescriptive fire regulations. Furthermore, fire safety analyses have been performed to evaluate a more realistic fire behaviour of exposed timber structures. The finite element program SAFIR and the fire model OZone have been used in the advance calculations. Finally, it is shown that timber buildings should be designed according to advance fire safety approach and suggestions are given for developing a timber fire model.