Buildings are long-lasting infrastructures which usually designed to withstand over 60 years. Durability or performance of the building is affected by numerous reasons and among that fire incidents may cause direct or indirect impacts to the present building or even in old age. Building collapses, implied damages and potential injury can be identified as outcomes of fire incidents. Moreover, fire fatalities are reported frequently as a red light to the safety of buildings. Despite, many fire detection and protection techniques are available for buildings, building fires are still considered as a major threat to the occupants. Thus, to ensure fire safety of the building, comprehensive review of past fire incidents to identify factors affecting to the fire is needed. Hence, this study aimed at reviewing the factors which are mostly affecting to the building fire incidents worldwide. A comprehensive literature review was directed to explore the behaviour of building fire, hardware and software measures of fire safety, models for fire impact evaluation, global fire incidents in different buildings and factors affecting to the building fire incidents. Building design features, refurbishment practices, human behaviour, fire regulations, policies and building codes, fire fighting  tools and techniques and perceptions of architects and fire protection engineers were identified as factors affecting to the building fire incidents. Finally, the paper proposes a conceptual framework for better understanding on past fire incidents and to strive for fire resistant buildings in the future.