The Pyrene Company Limited

[1] A British offshoot, The Pyrene Company Limited was founded in 1914 when Wallace B. Phillips, an American businessman, set up in Great Queen Street, London, selling 'pump' extinguishers.

The company moved to Grosvenor Gardens, London in 1918, and then to Stoke Newington in 1920, where a factory to manufacture soda-acid and foam fire extinguishers was established.

During World War II, Pyrene designed and manufactured ARP equipment for ordnance factories, industry and power stations.

Also in these years the company received commissions from the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell to develop mediums for extinguishing sodium and lithium fires, which they produced under the Pyromet brand-name.

Over the years Pyrene fire fighting systems were installed in a number of the world's largest passenger liners including the Queen Elizabeth, Oriana and Empress of Britain.

In that same year a Bristol Britannia aircraft, flown by test pilot Donald Chubb, landed on a carpet of Pyrene foam at Manston.

A further addition to the group in 1976 was the acquisition of Submarine and Safety Engineering Ltd, specialists in self-contained under-water breathing apparatus and diving equipment.