Wildland fire cost auditing and fire finance shape this fire protection expert witness’s work across more than 45 years of fire protection and finance experience, including firefighting, wildland fire cost auditing, wildland fire cost share agreement review, and wildland fire site management and coordination. He has more than 10 years of expert witness experience providing consultations, deposition testimony, and courtroom testimony in fire protection and fire finance matters. His areas of expertise include wildland fire cost auditing, auditing, cost estimating, finance, financial reporting, fire damages, fire prevention systems, fire protection, fire resistance, firefighter practices, forest fire matters, wildfire management, and wildland fire management.

He retired as a fire captain after a career involving wildland and structural fire suppression, major fire incident assignments, and fire finance responsibilities. His professional involvement includes CAL FIRE’s Activity Reporting and Costs Program, the ARC Committee, and the E-33 Incident Timekeeping Committee. He also co-authored incident finance audit training, received approximately 240 hours of incident finance training, conducted approximately 200 hours of finance training, and has qualified and testified as an expert witness in depositions and trials in state and federal courts in the area of fire finances.

His fire finance experience includes finance responsibilities on approximately 250 fires, responsibility for cost packages in the Amador/El Dorado Ranger Unit from 2003 through 2007, and finance positions on major fire incidents throughout California. He has completed fire cost reviews and audits that resulted in recovery exceeding $200 million. His work includes auditing wildland fire costs, reviewing wildland cost share agreements, evaluating fire cost packages, and applying incident finance knowledge involving claims, cost analysis, demobilization, equipment time recording, damage assessment, timekeeping, personnel time recording, and finance section operations.