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Fire Experts at Reax Engineering Inc |
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Carlos Fernandez-Pello, PhD  
Carlos Fernandez-Pello is an internationally-recognized fire expert with over 30 years of experience in fire forensics. He has testified as a fire expert witness on numerious occasions in US Federal and State Court as well as in Australia. His areas of fire expertise span several areas including ignition of solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels; fire modeling; flame spread and fire spread; flammable liquid pool fire burning; self heating and spontaneous combustion; smoldering and transition from smolder to flaming; ignition of spot fires by embers and heated particles; and smoke detector product liability.
Carlos received a PhD from the University of California San Diego in 1975 with a dissertation on flame spread. His post-doctoral work took him to Harvard and Princeton Universities where he conducted fire and combustion research. In 1980, Dr. Fernandez-Pello became a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley where he has remained since. Over his career, Carlos has published hundreds of journal and conference papers related to combustion and fire.
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Chris Lautenberger, PhD, PE
 Chris received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering (major area: Combustion, minor areas: Fluid Dynamics and Wildland Fire Science) from the University of California at Berkeley with a dissertation related to materials' flammability and fire modeling. He also received an MS in Fire Protection Engineering from WPI with a thesis related to computational fluid dynamics modeling of fires. Chris is licensed as a Fire Protection Engineer (Professional Engineer) in the state of California. He is a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator in accordance with the National Association of Fire Investigators (NAFI-CFEI).
Lautenberger’s professional activities span building code and fire code consulting, fire science research, design of fire protection and life safety systems, and forensic analysis of fires and explosions. His areas of fire expertise include fire origin & cause analyses with an emphasis on testing fire investigation hypotheses using science; product liability analysis; analysis of building and fire code requirements for design of new buildings as well as for post-fire investigations; structural and wildland fire modeling; sprinkler and smoke detector activation and performance; ignition and burning of gases, liquids, and solids; ignition of fuels by heated particles, sparks, and embers; materials flammability; and smoke exhaust system sizing.
Chris regularly applies the Scientific Method to test fire investigation hypotheses under NFPA 921, Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations, by using fire dynamics and fire modeling to assess whether a particular hypothesis is consistent with fire science and the available forensic evidence, or should be eliminated due to contradictions with the same. Chris has over 13 years of experience applying fire dynamics and fire modeling in support of scientific research, Fire Protection Engineering design, and fire investigation.
Dr. Lautenberger teaches graduate-level courses in Fire Dynamics and Fire Modeling in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Before joining Reax Engineering his professional experience included building and fire code consulting, fire modeling, and performance-based design of fire protection and life safety systems at Arup Fire (San Francisco, CA) and Code Consultants, Inc. (St. Louis, MO) as well as forensic fire reconstruction and analysis as an independent consultant.
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David Rich, PhD
Dr. Rich earned his PhD in the Combustion and Fire Processes Laboratory at the University of California working on NASA projects to better understand the behavior of fire in zero gravity conditions. Dr. Rich brings a diverse background to engineering, with research and development experience in academia and the private sector, in combustion, bioengineering and mechanical design combined with practical experience as a Rescue Captain and Paramedic in the San Francisco Fire Department. He is a lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley, in the Fire Protection Engineering graduate program at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and in thermo-fluid sciences at Santa Clara University. Dr. Rich is a fire expert with comprehensive experience in the fire testing laboratory and with sophisticated analysis and modeling tools. He is an experienced designer and peer reviewer of building fire safety systems, especially performance based systems supported by computational methods and experimental mock-ups. Dr. Rich has broad experience as an expert in legal matters, conducting fire scene investigations, review of expert opinions, evidence collection, systems analysis, experimental investigations, computational fire modeling and graphics support for trial and mediation.
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COLLABORATORS
Carman and Associates Fire Investigation
For cases or projects with a large fire investigation component, Reax Engineering collaborates with ATF Senior Special Agent (retired) Steve Carman. Mr. Carman, owner of Carman and Associates Fire Investigation (Grass Valley, California), is a widely-respected fire expert with more than 20 years of fire investigation experience. He served as a Special Agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms from 1988 to 2008, during which time he was assigned to the Sacramento and Redding, California offices. He received his certification as an ATF Certified Fire Investigator in 1993 and spent more than nine years as a member of the ATF's Western National Response Team. Special Agent Carman graduated from the US Coast Guard Academy in 1980 with a BS degree with High Honors in Physical Sciences. Prior to joining ATF, he served six years as a Coast Guard officer including two as Commanding Officer (afloat) of the USCG Cutter Cape Jellison. After that he spent two years in the private sector working in chemical and mechanical engineering.
Mr. Carman has investigated several hundred fires with more than 70 fire deaths and average fire losses of more than $1,000,000. He has conducted and led numerous complex arson and explosives investigations in Northern California resulting in many successful federal and state prosecutions. He has lectured internationally on various aspects of fire science and investigation including fire dynamics, fire chemistry, and fire modeling. Due to his scientific background and work with fire chemistry and physics, Mr. Carman has focused much of his work and research towards the study of "unusual" fire behavior and its recognition during investigations. Among his works was the publishing of an ATF monograph in October 1994 detailing his conclusions regarding a nationally puzzling fire phenomenon dubbed "High Temperature Accelerants". In 2004 at the Annual Meeting of the National Fire Protection Association, Special Agent Carman presented his study of the spontaneous ignition of a truckload of ammonium nitrate- containing explosives. His most recent work has revolved around efforts to simplify the understanding of post-flashover fire behavior for the fire investigation community. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Arson Investigators. He is also an adjunct instructor at Cogswell Polytechnic College in California.
Carman and Associates and Reax Engineering provide complementary skills and experience. Together they offer clients a full range of fire expert witness services.
Rapperport and Associates
For cases requiring fire expert witness services related to structural design and analysis, fracture mechanics, fatigue analysis, fractography, and metallurgy, Reax Engineering works closely with Rapperport and Associates, our East coast affiliate. |
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| Contacts |
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Reax Engineering Inc.
1958 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704 |
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Based in the San Francisco
Bay Area but serving clients
across the US and abroad |
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