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History
The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) first became involved in fire safety in response to a 1904 complaint about the incompatibility of different shipboard fire hose couplings. The extent of this problem was highlighted during the 1904 Baltimore fire. The hose couplings on fire trucks arriving from surrounding communities had different threads and could not connect to the Baltimore fire hydrants. The trucks were sidelined and the fire destroyed about one-fourth of the city. Staff at NIST surveyed the coupling threads nationwide and in 1905 the fledgling National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) adopted its first standard for fire hose couplings and adapters based on the NIST data.
Over a 100 years later, NIST continues to serve the nation by providing methods to quantify the behavior of fire and means to reduce the impact of fire on people, property, and the environment.
Learn more in the NIST Special Publication A Legacy of Fire Safety: NIST Marks 50 Years of the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 or visit our interactive website 50 Years of Fire Safety Advances.
