Quote:
Originally posted by gr8fl4porsche
Sprinklers are a good idea - should save you $ on homeowners ins as well. I always wondered why commercial buildings made of steel and concrete require sprinks while residential dwellings made of wood do not.
My smoke detectors seem to work very well. They go off almost every time my wife cooks 
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Cost.
Also consider that the design life span of most new residential dwellings is about 15-20 years (I've actually seen some as low as 12 years). As such, there's tremendous economic dis-incentive to use more expensive materials and rated assemblies.
Even if you stick with timber construction, there are lots of ways to design the building to increase fire resistivity, but it simply isn't a major consideration in most residential design (particularly those residences designed by owners, developers or contractors and not by architects). "Code-mandated minimums" is the operative phrase for most residential construction these days. . . well, that and maximizing square footage (see also "McMansionization").
As has been correctly alluded to, smoke detection and heat detection (and response) are not the same thing. You can design anything you want with any degree of safety you want, it just depends on your goals and budget.