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Agricultural Chemical Warehouse Fire

A fire in an agricultural chemicals warehouse destroyed the building and its contents. APTECH was retained by the building owner's law firm to find the cause and origin of the fire. Previous investigators, including the fire department, had narrowed down the source of the fire to a Ford pickup truck that was parked inside the warehouse. We reviewed the witnesses' deposition transcripts, inspected the exemplars of the pickup truck (because the original truck had been destroyed), and examined the truck manufacturer's drawings and specifications. Our investigation indicated that an electrical wiring harness had short-circuited and ignited a nearby plastic fuel line.

Satish Almaula		Plant failure and root cause analysis; process and design engineering analysis; process technology development and testing; plant engineering, operations, maintenance and safety management; plant and process control system management.

Kimble Clark, Ph.D.		Failure analysis, heat transfer & thermodynamics, process plant equipment failures & explosions, fuel science, combustion, industrial fires and explosions.

Richard Schreiber, P.E.		Machinery and mechanical device failure analysis, mechanical testing, combustion and heat transfer, industrial fires and explosions, gas appliances.

Eric Sullivan, P.E.		Metallurgy, welding, failure analysis, fire and explosion investigations, turbines, equipment, piping.

Geoffrey Egan, Ph.D.		Engineering mechanics, welding engineering, stress and fatigue analysis, risk analysis, nondestructive examination, project management.