Our story

Dafo Vehicle History

Dafo was founded in 1919 by Nils Forssberg and John Danielson under the name Danielson Forssberg & Co. In the mid-70s, the name was changed to Dafo Brand, where DAFO is an abbreviation of DAnielson and FOrssberg.  
 
The company started trading portable fire extinguishers under the tradename Pyrene. Pyrene, the first halon extinguisher, was part of Dafo’s product range from the late 1960s. After trading various types of products, Dafo decided to fully commit to becoming a wholesaler with a complete range of fire protection products in the mid-’70s, when it changed its name to Dafo.   
 
Dafo was one of the first companies globally to develop integrated firefighting solutions for vehicles in 1976. This was due to the demand from the insurance industry, which requested that forestry machinery be equipped with fire suppression systems to obtain proper insurance.  
 
2014 – Dafo US was established in Wisconsin. 2018 - the office and warehouse were moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. 
 
On July 1st, 2018, Dafo separated its vehicle fire detection and suppression operations from its core fire safety equipment business. The new company that emerged was Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection.  

January 1st, 2020, Dafo Oy in Finland was merged with Dafo Vehicle.  

On May 1st, 2020, Dafo Asia was established in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as a subsidiary.  

July 1st, 2020, Dafo Vehicle Estonia OÜ was established in Estonia. 

Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection supplies fire detection and suppression systems for applications in heavy vehicles in the following areas:  

• agriculture 

• buses and coaches 

• construction  

• forestry  

• ground service equipment 

• material and cargo handling (ports included) 

• mining  

• special applications - generators, military vehicles 

• transport & freight  

• waste handling  

 
Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection has three main business activities:  

• Integration (Fire suppression systems integration into OEM production line)  

• Retrofit (Fire suppression systems installed at the final customer)  

• Service & Maintenance 

Why Dafo Vehicle? 

Dafo Vehicle is a total risk management service provider that guides and assists our customers every step of the way. To be a trustworthy partner, we are continuous: 

• Listening to problems within the industry  

• Researching problems within the industry 

• Developing solutions that address problems within the industry