Fire Investigation of Buildings, Vehicles and Equipment
I have had the pleasure of serving on the executive board of the Canadian Association of Fire Investigators (CAFI) Ontario Chapter 006,since 2015. I was recently elected to the position of 1st Vice President in 2018, which is the role I currently hold and am poised to become the next President.
Through CAFI, our executive is responsible for a great number of things, including hosting training seminars and events for other fire investigators and engineers in the private sector and the public sector. In 2016 we constructed a burn building on the grounds of the Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute (FESTI) attached to Pearson Airport in Toronto, ON. This is the location we host many of our multi-day training seminars. It gives investigators and other stakeholders the opportunity to see and investigate a building following a fire(s) and can better evaluate things such as ventilation effects of fires, fire patterns and fire dynamics, fuel loads and fuel packages within a building, arc mapping, electronic and electrical failures, incendiary fire indicators, accelerant sampling and laboratory analysis and much more with the assistance and guidance of our executive.
We put a lot of time and effort into setting up the test cells to maximize the learning opportunity for seminar participants and video record the live burns to show the attendees after they have had the opportunity to investigate the potential cause(s) of the fires for themselves towards the end of the seminar. We use thermocouples and other instrumentation to gather data during the live burn so we can record when flashover within the compartment(s) occurs and to time how long after flashover the fires are allowed to continue before onsite FESTI firefighters suppress the fire. This shows the difference between fuel controlled fires and ventilation controlled post-flashover fires and the key differences that ventilation effects and patterns add to the complexity of fire investigation.
Participants also have in class training and lectures on a variety of topics in addition to the hands on learning offered outside. Our next seminar will be at FESTI on May 28 and 29, 2019. I will be one of the presenters during this two day seminar. The seminar is titled “Solving the Unsolvable” and will address topics such as Spontaneous Heating, Chemical Fires, Farm Buildings, Garages and Equipment and Electrical Faults. I hope to see you there.
I often get asked how I ended up in the field of fire investigation. I had the very unique benefit of learning from my father, Rene, who is an engineer and one of the most experienced fire investigation experts in Canada and still heads our engineering firm today. I don’t know anyone personally who has investigated more fires than Rene. My sister Micheka, who also works as an engineer and fire investigator in our London, ON office, and myself spent much of our childhood and teen years learning from our Dad, going to job sites as an extra set of hands, talking about fire investigation daily, helping in the office and writing reports since as long as I can remember. It really did start as a family business and remains so to this day. I now have well over 700 fire and explosion investigations under my belt and enjoy what I do everyday. I have been involved in many high-profile investigations such as the Sunrise Propane explosion, St. Jacob’s Farmers Market Fire, Sprucedale house explosion fatality, Mississauga restaurant explosion, and many others. Some of the most rewarding cases I’ve worked on involve working for public defenders representing persons wrongfully charged with arson and giving them an opportunity to start living their lives again.
It is important to carefully select a good, qualified and experienced fire investigator when a fire loss occurs. Certifications are available through the National Association of Fire Investigators (NAFI). I am currently a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI) and Certified Vehicle Fire Investigator (CVFI) through NAFI. CAFI also certifies Canadian fire investigators. I currently hold the designation of Canadian Certified Fire Investigator (CCFI-C) through CAFI. I also have an engineering background, which is of great use to having the technical knowledge needed and applying scientific principles and the scientific method to investigations, which is a requirement of all investigators as outlined in the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) 921, which is the standard of care for all fire investigators in addition to other supporting publications and available literature.
NFPA 1033 outlines 16 topics which fire investigators must be trained and competent in. Simply being educated or becoming initially certified is simply not enough. You must continue to gain experience through investigations and training to stay as current and competent as possible. This is critical when litigation occurs and a fire investigator needs to be qualified in order to testify and give evidence following an investigation or critique. Cross examinations of experts can be a very grueling and difficult experience for those not meeting the threshold. Many fire investigators do not get qualified as an expert when they get to this stage, which results in their evidence not being heard, which often leads to poor results during litigation for the party they represent. I often think back to the first time I was qualified as an expert in 2012 and how stressful that experience was.
Our firm has many fire investigators who have been qualified as experts to give you the peace of mind if litigation becomes reality. We are a team of highly educated and experienced fire investigators. There’s not much we have not seen over the years, whether it’s a fire in a building, vehicle, piece of equipment, appliance or electronic device. We are trained to investigate and handle the most complex of fire investigations and pride ourselves on our prompt service, report turnaround time and unmatched cost effectiveness for our clients. We hope to see you on your next fire and appreciate the opportunity to serve you.
