Dr. Barry Levine joins the FireTox Team!

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Barry Levine has joined the FireTox team of experts. Dr. Levine received his B.S. in Chemistry from Loyola College and his Ph.D. in Toxicology from the Medical College of Virginia. He served as the Chief Toxicologist for the State of Maryland, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for over 20 years and was the Director of the Forensic Toxicology Laboratory at the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System for 25 years. Dr. Levine is an Adjunct Professor in the Forensic Sciences Department at Stevenson University and was an Instructor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He is a fellow of the American Board of Forensic Toxicology and a Diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry – Toxicological Chemistry. He is well known as the editor of Principles of Forensic Toxicology and has provided expert testimony in over 200 cases. For more information about Dr. Levine or the FireTox Team, contact us at info@firetox.com or visit www.firetox.com.

TIER: The FireTox Core Service Areas

We believe that information transfer between our four core service areas- Training, Investigation, Engineering, and Research- makes us stronger experts in our field. Our founders have studied the growth, spread, and suppression of fires for over twenty-five years. We've used this knowledge to drive changes in codes and standards and to train hundreds of fire investigators and fire safety professionals.  Our research efforts are inspired by the lessons learned from the hundreds of fires we have investigated and our desire to reduce loss of life and property damage from fires.  We also incorporate our post-fire reconstruction experience into our fire protection engineering designs.  We are intimately aware of what can go wrong if the right fire safety measures are not implemented, and we use this knowledge to help our clients achieve their fire protection goals.  To learn more about the FireTox TIER, watch our short but informative video below.

© 2020 FireTox, LLC

Digging in the Dirt- The Early Beginnings of a Fire Investigator and Forensic Engineer

I am often asked how I found myself in "this" career. I typically mention my early beginnings in the fire service, but in reality, my love for investigation and engineering started much earlier in my life. I was reminded of that more recently while looking through some photographs from my childhood.

Yes, that's me working the controls of a backhoe at age 6. I grew up working on construction sites with my dad. Summers and holidays were spent learning different trades. I worked beside my father on commercial construction sites in Philadelphia during the day, and then helped him build our family home from the ground up on the nights and weekends. From pouring foundations, to raising walls and setting trusses, to running electrical, HVAC, and plumbing, I've had the opportunity to place my hands on all of it. At the time, I had no idea how invaluable those experiences would be in molding and shaping my future and career as an investigator and an engineer. Not only did I get to learn it, but I got to do it.

At 17 years old, I decided to join the volunteer fire service. Part of our high school graduation requirement was a community service project. While many students chose activities on the recommended list, I chose to run into burning buildings. Definitely not the typical path, but a decision I made with no pondering, perhaps because I had spent most of my life being rough and tumble, sweating and getting dirty, using tools and heavy machinery. The skills, knowledge, and work ethic that my family instilled in me led me to the fire service, and the fire service laid the foundation for everything that followed- an amazing and fulfilling career and a beautiful family.

I fell in love with the fire service and everything it represented, but becoming a career firefighter conflicted with my parents' desire for me to go to college. When I learned about the fire protection engineering program at the University of Maryland, I knew I had found the answer. I wanted to learn more and do more, so I did not stop at a bachelor's degree. A few years after finishing my master's degree in fire protection engineering, I got the itch to pursue my doctoral, but I wanted to expand my skills beyond engineering. Having spent most of my career investigating fire related deaths and injuries, I knew it was time to understand more about the victims, their behavior in fires, and the toxicity of fires. After many arduous years, I completed my PhD in Toxicology and became one of a few individuals in the world with dual-degrees in fire protection engineering and toxicology.

Now decades later, I often reflect on these experiences and decisions and the people who have helped me along the way. I am grateful to be able to take all these skills and feed them into my growing business, FireTox, LLC.

So, how did I find myself in "this" career ?- I guess the simple answer is that I love to analyze, to engineer, to deconstruct, to reconstruct, to investigate, and most importantly, to dig in the dirt!