NIST is the world's expert on the behavior of fire; if they have a report to make on this, it's going to be the benchmark.
I believe NFPA (Nation Fire Prevention Association) is what you meant. They are a private organization, an arm of Underwriters Laboratory (UL). NIST is the new name for the National Bureau of Standards.
NIST commands and can mobilize enormous technical resources. I'll betcha dollars to donuts that 90% of the Ph.D.'s at NIST vote Democratic frevently, but they are institutionally apolicital (as opposed to State, CIA or Defense) so based on reputation for intellectual honesty and technical competence and mechanicism for internal review, I'd take NIST over most anybody.