Fire Expert Witnesses

This expert has over years of experience in prescribed fire, controlled burns, wildfire, and smoke impacts to people, vegetation, and infrastructure. He earned his BS in plant science at Cameron University and his MS in range science at Texas Tech University. This expert is active in his field as a member of the Oklahoma Volunteer Fire Department, the Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils, and the Alliance of Prescribed Burn Associations. He is also highly-published in his field, having written one book on prescribed fire, authored or co-authored 36 extension fact sheets, and 42 peer-reviewed research articles. He began his career as a research assistant at Texas Tech University before going on to serve as a research station superintendent and a research associate at Oklahoma State University. Currently, this expert serves as a research extension specialist in prescribed fire at a university in Oklahoma.

This expert is a member of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, California Council of EMS Educators, California Fire Chiefs, California EMS Educator/QI Group, and National Association of EMS Educators. He is currently the President and Education Program Director of a private EMT training center. He has 26 years of experience in Emergency Medical Services and 20+ years as an Educator. This expert also has extensive expert witness experience.

This licensed paramedic has over 37 years of EMS experience with 22 years in an administrative capacity. In addition, he has a plethora of certifications including EMS instructor, OSHA compliance instructor, and Emergency Vehicle Operator Instructor (EVOC). Finally, he has held several extremely prestigious EMS related positions including the Director of Emergency Management for Portland, CT before opening his own EMS training firm.

This expert has worked in the firearms and firearms training business for over 40 years in the military, specializing in Combat Tactics and Training, Marksmanship, and Small Arms Skill Development. He holds membership in a multitude of distinguished professional firearm organizations and has earned the prestigious U.S. Army Distinguished Badges for both Service Pistol and Service Rifle. This expert also coached and was a firing team member of the World Champion U.S. Army Reserve International Combat Team. He is the Co-Founder and a former Director of the Sig Sauer Academy, a leading provider of courses in personal protection, gun safety, and expert law enforcement training, and he currently acts as the Principal of his own firearms consulting firm.

This expert has been working with fire extinguishing systems for 40 years. He is a Registered Professional Engineer and holds membership in both the Society of Fire Protection Engineers and the National Fire Protection Association. He spent 15 years working for Ansul/Wormald, starting as a Development Engineer of fire suppression products and working his way up through the roles of Manufacturing Engineer, Operations Management, Applications Engineer, Product Development Manager, and eventually to Vice President of Wormald Fire Systems. After serving in executive positions with Fenwal Safety Systems and Forney Corporation, he became President of Kidde Technologies, a position he held for over a decade. Currently, this expert is the Principal of his own fire systems consultancy, wherein he utilizes his technical and market experience in the fire suppression industry to aid businesses, manufacturers, and private equity firms on a variety of projects and initiatives related to fire protection systems.

This engineer is an expert in the areas of fire causation and consumer product defects as well as construction materials and workmanship issues. He has specific expertise with installation and maintenance of household appliances including stoves and ovens. He belongs to a number of societies in the engineering field including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the National Academy of Forensic Engineers. He is currently a private engineer specializing in design, failures, building code and ADA compliance issues, and human factors.

This expert is a certified master electrician, commercial electrical inspector, licensed electrical contractor, and NEC expert. He also completed an OSHA 30 hour construction safety training course. He is a member of both the National Fire Protection Association and the International Association of Electrical Inspectors. He has spent multiple years as a foreman and journeyman electrician on multiple electrical projects, and is currently an education projects manager with a vocational teaching credential instructing electronics, electrical wiring and theory, and electrical contracting.

This highly qualified expert has 44+ years of experience in Structural and Wildland Firefighting, Emergency and Disaster Response, which includes from basic hand crew work and entry level firefighter, up to and including being Incident Commander on thousands of emergency incidents. For the past 37 years he has been an instructor and an educational designer, developing and instructing courses in all types of Firefighting, Incident Command, and Emergency Response. He currently holds the title of Part Time Battalion Chief where he responds to major wildland fires and other all hazard incidents throughout the United States. Although partially retired now, he was a Battalion Chief with the Orange County Fire Authority where he was a manager of field Battalion consisting of 9 fire stations, 35 career firefighters including 13 captains, 13 fire engines, 3 ladder trucks, 4 medic units, 1 air unit, and 1 water tender. Notable accomplishments include but are not limited to being selected as Operations Section Chief on the Incident Management Team for 2002 Salt Lake Olympics for month of February 2002, in Park City Utah. He has been the Commander in charge of running various teams when responding to disasters and emergency incidents and knows how to develop the incident management processes on-site to manage the emergency and ensure his team's safety and that of everyone present at the scene.

This expert brings 40+ years of electrical engineering experience to a continuing career in failure analysis and electrical fire investigations. In addition to his professional work for several industrial firms, he has taught these subjects at the Illinois Fire Academy., Wisconsin IAAI.

This expert has 25+ years of law enforcement experience, for the vast majority of which he served as a fire investigator for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A certified fire investigator with both the ATF and the International Association of Arson Investigators, he has consulted for police forces in countries such as Colombia and Latvia on arson investigation practices. Since 2014, he has operated an independent fire investigation consultancy.

This expert specializes in electrical engineering issues, and has performed numerous investigations into fires caused/allegedly caused by electrical issues. His experience includes evaluation of electronics products and their failure modes to determine whether they adhered to relevant safety standards, including those established by Underwriters Laboratories and the Canadian Standards Association. He has also evaluated products and components for structural wiring compliance with the National Electric Code. His projects have included a wide array of products and components, including but not limited to electronics, appliances, HVAC/R, residential and commercial wiring, and battery failure analysis, with an emphasis on lithium ion battery chemistry. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in multiple states, and holds a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator certification.

This fire protection and construction codes expert has been active in his field for over 33 years. He earned his B.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of New York. The expert began his career with fire protection and alarm system companies before becoming a Consulting Engineer with Lehr Associates, where he prepared code reviews. From 2000 until 2009, the expert was the Director of the New York office of Hughes Associates and was responsible for preparing detailed code analysis reports. He now runs his own consulting business and is a member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.

This supremely qualified fire origin and cause investigation expert has served as a municipal fire marshal for over 20 years, and is a certified fire investigator who is the proprietor of a private fire investigation and fire/building code consulting firm.

This fire analysis expert received his PhD in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech. He is a licensed fire protection engineer. He has been involved in research for over 17 years and is currently an associate professor in fire safety engineering technology at an elite university.

This highly qualified expert received his BS in Mechanical engineering, an MS in mechanical engineering and a second in aerospace engineering. His PhD in aerospace engineering was granted by the the University of Michigan. Formerly he served as as a senior fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in their fire research division. Currently he serves as professor and director of undergraduate studies for the department of fire protection at a major MD university. He has over 20 years experience in fire combustion and research.

This former Chief California State Fire Marshal is a consummate expert in fire protection, building codes, and window safety. He has over 40 years of hands-on expertise and currently serves as Executive Director of the National Code Services Association. He also served as the Chair of California‟s Special Arson Task Force and has extensive experience in the investigation of fire origin, cause and spread and also negligence of fire department operations and management. He is a leading expert in window safety and serves on the National Safety Council's Window Safety Task Force.

This expert has over 20 years of experience in wildland fire investigation, suppression, prescribed fire, and training. He is currently the President/Owner of a private wildfire investigation, consulting, and training firm. Previously, he served as a Special Agent with the US Forest Service, specializing in wildland fire investigation and performing as the national wildland fire investigation expert, as well as, detailing as the Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge. He was also the Incident Commander of the US Forest Service Law Enforcement & Investigations Fire Investigation Team and received the US Forest Service's Special Agent of the Year Award. He is currently an active member, and former Co-Chair, of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group's Wildland Fire Investigation Committee. He has investigated hundreds of wildland fires, to include the largest fires in the history of Arizona and New Mexico. He has also instructed numerous wildland fire investigation training courses, both nationally and internationally. He was also a Subject Matter Expert in the U.S. Forest Service's International Programs organization. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Administration/Finance from Northern Arizona University.

This expert has 27+ years of experience in specialty vehicle engineering and design. Currently, he works as the Manager of the Vehicle Engineering Group for a large scientific advisory company. The expert earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and has authored multiple publications in his field. Previously, he was the Director of Engineering for Capacity Trucks and the Chassis Development Leader for Thor Motor Coach. He is also a member of the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association.

This highly qualified expert has extensive experience in the field of fire protection engineering. He received his bachelors and masters from the University of San Diego, both in mechanical engineering. His PhD in mechanical engineering was also granted from UCSD. He is on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Wildland Fire as well as the NFPA Technical Committee on Wildlife and Rural Fire Protection. Currently he serves as an associate editor for a fire technology publication and associate professor in the department of Fire Protection Engineering at a major Maryland university.

This expert is currently a fire and explosion investigator and analyst at a top forensic firm in the Southeast. He is a highly qualified fire and explosion expert and has extensive credentials, including: multiple certifications, fire and explosion research, many published articles and papers, presentations, teaching, years of experience including hundreds of fire and explosion investigations, analyses, and testimony on numerous cases.