We have always been interested in exhibitions, both from the point of view of supplying portable fire extinguishers to the venues, and from that of taking space and publicising our aims.

In June 1938 our member companies agreed on the minimum price they would charge for loan of extinguishers to exhibitions (then 7/6d) plus some agreed carriage charges, and this agreement, reviewed annually, lasted until 1963.

The organisers of the British Empire Exhibition of ’24 wanted each member company to supply 25 units free of charge, in return for which the company could display their advertisements over the product on a 9”x6” card, and our Association would put its badge at the bottom of the card.

We went along with this although it didn’t seem a particularly good deal and we were not persuaded the following year.

In June 1951 we agreed to provide BSI with a number of extinguishers (several member companies to send one each) to cover the BSI Golden Jubilee Exhibition at Science Museum.

We once wrote to the Board of Trade complaining of bureaucracy; sometimes appliances ordered by overseas customers for exhibitions were so delayed by customs that they missed the exhibition, which was hardly good for our export trade.

The organisers of an International Fire Exhibition 1965 expressed concern at the lack of interest shown by the fire trade – which is accounted for in our own notes on the subject, which record that we got nothing from them whenever we attempted to get facts and progress reports to help us decide whether it would be worthwhile to exhibit.

Our interest extended beyond portables, BFPSA was invited to organise a seminar at IFSEC 1976, and chose ‘Integrated systems’ as our topic.

Today FIA are main sponsors of FIREX International.