We agreed in Council that a code of practice for extinguisher servicing might do more harm than good ‘as it might get into anyone’s hands’.

Nothing more was suggested for several years, then on 11.9.1962 our lunchtime speaker was Mr Struther, Director of the Fire Protection Association, talking about a letter from them to us regarding servicing by inexperienced people. ‘Mr Struther asked what protection the public can be offered against defective maintenance services. He emphasised that there should be some means of knowing who were reputable servicing agents. Personally he thought the right people to do this would be FETA.’

Today there is a BS code of practice on the subject and has been for years, but it is backed up by the requirement to have proper training. This was the birth of the FETA exam where BAFE provided the training, this reversed in 2009 and FIA now provide the portable extinguisher maintenance training courses.