My brother is making a living milling with a woodmizer in Dayville Oregon. He mills a lot of (formerly) standing dead trees. His answer to being able to use dead trees for timber frames was "it depends". It is deffinitely possible to use them, but the longer they have been dead, the more insect damage. Fire killed trees harvested promptly are fine, but he pointed out that heavy equipment logging in a burned area may offset the "green" factor of "salvaging" dead logs. I would imagine lightning killed trees could have structural problems from the steam explosion which killed them.....It depends.
Jim
