Origins of Firetec

The detection and suppression of fire by means of a melting tube was an established concept by the 1940’s. However it remained rather impractical until advances in plastics technology after World War 2.  Claims of it’s invention since WW2, are erroneous if not fraudulent, and some attempts at patenting an already well known idea were seriously misleading.

The two pioneering companies, Firetec® and Firetrace, were independently able to take advantage of the same clever post war plastic to produce an identical tube. This became the basis of reliable equipment which today is marketed under the several different brand names and companies respectively associated with either Firetec® or Firetrace.

Firetec® is a registered trade mark of Fire Monitoring Systems Ltd., a hands-on engineering company since the 1960’s. Our engineers originally worked on the heavy and clumsy, hit-or-miss, USA based fire protection equipment, which required electricity to work and (assuming that the electrical supply was intact) discharged powder everywhere.

As manufacturers, we remain a pioneering and hands-on company, and rather than complain, accept that Firetrace has found it necessary to copy some of our ideas.

Firetec® supplies equipment, built to order at our facilities in the UK and USA. Our customers include the USA and British Armed Forces, Caterpillar, Time Warner, UK and overseas government computing centres and vehicle manufacturers in 11 countries.

Firetec® has just announced a high temperature tube, for uses including the protection of turbo engines, cookers and industrial hot spots. Other announcements are imminent.