CAPABILITY | THERMAL SCIENCES

Fire & Explosion Investigations

House engulfed in fire. Exponent provides fire and explosion investigations.

Understand why fires begin and what you can do to prevent them

When a catastrophic fire or explosion occurs, clients turn to Exponent for insights. Our multidisciplinary teams conduct in-depth field examinations and use high-tech modeling and testing techniques to determine the origin and cause of fires, gas explosions, dust explosions, and other explosions. We can also provide expert witness testimony and help develop strategies to mitigate future fire risks.

How do we help organizations discover root causes and build more resiliency to protect against fires and explosions?

Exponent leverages more than 50 years of experience in fire investigations to conduct rigorous root cause analysis of fires and explosions while also helping clients develop proactive fire prevention strategies.  

Our teams are mobility equipped and can deploy to most incident sites to perform a wide array of fire investigation services including fire origin analysis, debris field mapping, three-dimensional scanning, explosion damage assessment, and facility inspection for potential fire and explosion hazards.

Exponent's multidisciplinary teams use advanced modeling tools including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), and Consolidated Model of Fire and Smoke Transport (CFAST), to evaluate explosions, wildfires, deflagrations, dust explosions, and heavy equipment fires. Our state-of-the-art testing facilities and laboratory research centers conduct rigorous analysis to provide answers for the most complex thermal-related incidents.

Our experts also provide expert testimony in litigation and arbitration cases using visual data demonstrations and computational flow models to demonstrate how fires progress, how flammable vapors disperse, and explosions propagate.

Capabilities and Services

Our Capabilities Are Unparalleled

With expertise in over 90 disciplines are hundreds of capabilities, tools, and methodologies - we get to the root of even the most complex challenges and give you the objective answers you need.

Experts

Our global and comprehensive expertise across industries gives us a deep understanding of current challenges, best industry practices, and the implications of emerging technologies.