SwRI Fire Technology Department celebrates 50th anniversary

San Antonio, Texas -- October 23, 1999 -- In the 1940s, research indicated that about 10,000 people died in the United States each year due to fire and annual property losses exceeded $700 million.

Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®) saw a need -- both for individuals and industries, and founded its Department of Fire Technology to research, test, and quantify fire and its hazards. Fifty years later, the department has grown into one of the world's largest organizations dedicated to fire research and testing.

SwRI offers multidisciplinary fire and explosion research and testing services, including consultation, listing and labeling, third-party sampling and inspection, and development of engineering and scientific solutions. The Institute serves government and commercial clients in the construction, transportation, chemical and petrochemical, nuclear, and telecommunications industries.

"We have developed one of the leading laboratories in the world for studying fire," Alex Wenzel, Director of the Department of Fire Technology, said. "Unlike other organizations, at the Institute we can draw from a variety of specialists and technical capabilities in other disciplines, all at one location."

SwRI's fire technology projects have ranged from the development of a fire extinguisher for NASA as part of a study of fire hazards in manned space craft after the Apollo I fire in 1967 to a study of the flammability characteristics of mobile homes in the 1970s to the development of a world class jet fire facility where Institute scientists simulate intense jet fires that threaten offshore drilling rigs in the 1990s.

SwRI's Department of Fire Technology is accredited by the National Evaluation Service, Inc., and is ISO/IEC Guide 25 compliant. The Institute is certified as a qualified testing laboratory and a third-party quality assurance and inspection agency. Also, SwRI has been designated a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Government agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard, General Services Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission have recognized SwRI's Department of Fire Technology.

Internationally, the Institute is recognized by Lloyd's Register of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas, the American Bureau of Shipping, the Standards Council of Canada, and the Explosives and Dangerous Goods Division of the Occupational Safety and Health of New Zealand.

For more information, visit the Fire Technology web site at: firetechnology.swri.org.

Fire Technology Timeline