I am finishing a paper on the development of a national curriculum for fire investigation. The capstone course for fire investigators should be advanced fire dynamics. Logically, you will need to study all of the prerequisite courses required to understand and apply the fundamentals of fire dynamics at an advance level. This would include chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, fluid flow, and heat transfer. The prerequisite courses for these courses would be chemistry and mathematics. Thus, a course of study in the thermal\fluid sciences would be the best educational course. These courses are offered by most mechanical engineering programs. You might start with a two-year college that offers an associates degree in mechanical engineering. But make sure the course work is calculus based as opposed to algebra based. This will make it much easier to transfer credits to a four year engineering program.

Douglas J. Carpenter, MScFPE, CFEI, PE, FSFPE
Vice President & Principal Engineer
Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc.
8940 Old Annapolis Road, Suite L
Columbia, MD 21045
(410) 884-3266
(410) 884-3267 (fax)
www.csefire.com