A limited historical account of fire research development in the United States is presented, starting in 1941. Incendiary bomb development activities in World War II are related in some detail. There followed a post-war organization of a Committee on Fire Research, operating under the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council. The activity of Dr. Howard Emmons and the author in that Committee, which played a significant role in the creation of the National Bureau of Standards' Center for Fire Research, is recorded. The narrative stops as the Center gets under way.