Plures Intelligens Modicum Machinatorem
808 Gilman Street Berkeley, CA 94710 | 510-549-3300 | admin@bearinc.com
Dr. Glen Stevick, P.E. ext. 101 | Dr. Dave Rondinone, P.E. ext. 102 | Derek King, P.E. ext. 103 | Mingxi Zheng, P.E. ext. 106
Fire Investigations.
Fire incidents are unique in that they often destroy much of the physical evidence key to determining their cause(s). BEAR's certified fire investigators and engineers follow a systematic and scientific methodology to determine how and why a fire started and propagated.
Our fire experts have the knowledge required to conduct and manage complex fire investigations. Our engineers investigate chemical fires, electrical fires, structural fires, and explosions of all kinds. We understand the importance of a quality report that is easily understood whether dealing with fraud, fire cause, or subrogation. Our investigations are multidisciplinary. We draw upon expertise in fire science and engineering to find the cause.
Our experts communicate the findings in a clear and concise manner that can be readily understood by non-technical individuals.
our services and expertise
Incident investigation and documentation
Cause, origin, and fire propagation analysis
Analysis of ignition temperatures and combustible gases generated by fire
Thermal transient structural integrity evaluations
Creep failures resulting from high temperatures
Meet our Fire Safety Engineer
Joe Zicherman, PhD, SFPE
Dr. Joe Zicherman studied fire science after a stint in polymers work an ICI subsidiary at UC Berkeley as a graduate student in the 1970's. At that time, the UC Fire Research Group was conducting groundbreaking work on fire dynamics and materials fire research funded by the National Science Foundation and the Center for Fire Research.
After graduation, Joe founded IFT Inc. in Berkeley, which evolved into Fire Cause Analysis. He developed that company to its current status as a fire investigation leader through a series of structured efforts to enhance the limited scientific bases available for 1980's investigation technology into that which is now codified in NFPA 921. As part of that work, Joe wrote and contributed sections on modeling and applying fire science to fire investigation in editions of the NFPA 921 Handbook that accompanied later revisions of the document. That work has been part of a general practice working with fire safety projects including determining heat release profiles of complete rail vehicles, looking at fire risk issues affecting decision making and applying fire science principals to fire losses and property assessment.
origin and cause investigation
The initial investigation of a fire is referred to as an "Origin and Cause" investigation. The sooner it is performed after a fire, the more likely it is to obtain crucial evidences. Fire scene evidence is usually heavily damaged by the fire and easily damaged further by weather, scavengers and repairs. BEAR's fire investigators and engineers are available to probe for an origin and cause on site and perform a scene documentation using photography, videography, and laser scanning.
The image on the left shows the carrier box after an electrical fire deteriorates a medical imaging facility. Careful examination of the carrier box and inside of 2 inch diameter electrical cables revealed that the screws used to attach the conduit box panels eroded into the 12,000 volt cables, causing a short circuit to the ground and igniting the cable insulation. The green arrows in the picture on the left indicate wear damage that had not made it all the way through the insulation when the fire occured.
airplane accidents
To prove that the destruction of a Boeing 747 at the Miami airport
was caused by a hydraulic fluid leak, the BEAR team designed and customized a system identifying a poorly maintained fuel truck as the cause. The video on the right is an animation produced by the BEAR team illustrating the cause of the fire destroying the Boeing 747.