Marc Leifer, ICL, summarised trends and perspectives in fire safety, as seen by his company. Civilisation has been marked by great fires, from Rome in 64 BC to San Francisco in 1906. Considerable improvements have been made in preventive fire safety, at least in developed countries, especially by design for safety and by the use of flame retardants in combustible materials. Challenges today are the need to address health and environmental concerns, be they scientific or irrational. Standards are moving towards rationalisation and flexibility to enable innovative fire safety technologies, and inclusion of smoke emission and smoke toxicity criteria. A key message is that flame retardants are largely a success and are a key to lower fire deaths and injuries: “No ignition, no fire”. See video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPakvDIaa_E