On 6th April 1921 FETA held a Special General Meeting. We had managed to get ourselves invited to give evidence before the Royal Commission on Fire Brigades and Fire Prevention, and held this meeting so that all our members could participate in our response. We were going to give reasons to the Commission why they should recommend the extensive use of the chemical fire extinguisher.
A Mr Umney suggested that in every building there should be a certain number of extinguishers according to the square footage. This became official policy when it was written in to the first BS 5306 part 3, now part 8, first publication February 1980 and is still the case today. We agreed that one of the aims of the Association should be to make the use of extinguishers compulsory. After the meeting the Council worked on ‘evidence to be given to the Commission’, wrote, agreed and sent a document. When the Commission later requested verbal evidence, we sent longstanding council members Mr Graham and Mr Yorke to represent our views.
 
As an affiliate of the British Standards Institution (BSi), the FIA supplies a range of fire safety standards – from emergency lighting, to fire detection and alarm systems, and fixed firefighting equipment.