Events

Fire Dynamics Boot Camp is designed to empower and prepare fire service leaders and instructors to incorporate the most current research about fire behavior and firefighting tactics into your training programs.  Lodging and most meals will be provided by the First Responder Center (FRC).  For questions about this event, please contact Kelly Casillo or call 443-302-2917.

Download the Full Training Announcement & Schedule

Fire Captain Chad Christensen has been a member of the Los Angeles County Fire Department for 19 years. He assisted with the development of the fire behavior curriculum currently being taught to the LACoFD.  He also serves on the Fire Behavior Committee as one of the lead fire behavior and fire dynamics instructors.  Additionally, he is a California State Certified Senior instructor for Live Fire Training. He is currently on the UL-FSRI Coordinated Fire attack panel and was a member of the UL-FSRI fire attack technical panel. He has taught Hands on Training at Firehouse Expo Nashville and at FDIC since 2016. 

Captain John Ceriello is a 30-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department, 15 of those years was spent in Special Operations Command, where he is currently a covering officer. He has been an integral part in the FDNY & NIST Wind Impacted Fires Project that introduced stairwell pressurization, wind control devices and high-rise nozzles into the field. He also was part of the implementation of new concepts of ventilation and flow-path control to the FDNY. John is on Underwriter Laboratories advisory panel for a number of projects including their Horizontal and Vertical Ventilation, Attic Fires and most recently Training Fires, Safety, Fidelity, and Exposure.

Captain James M Golondzinier has been a member of the Los Angeles County Fire Department for 25 years. He has assisted with the development of department fire ground policies and the fire behavior curriculum being taught to the LACoFD. He has instructed on these topics at both FDIC and Firehouse World. He serves on the Fire Behavior Committee as the lead for fire dynamics and live fire training. He also served as a member of the UL-FSRI Positive Pressure Attack panel.

Sean Gray currently holds the rank of Captain with Cobb County Fire and Emergency Services in Metro Atlanta and has been in the fire service since 1993.  He has a bachelor’s degree in Fire Safety Engineering and is working towards furthering his education.  He has been a member of multiple technical panels involving firefighter safety research and is a NFPA committee member for Fire Hose and Fire Service Training Facilities.  He recently co-authored a PennWell Publications DVD and Book titled- The Evolving FireGround.  He has also been published in multiple fire service magazines, is an FDIC H.O.T. Lead Instructor, runs the website stopbelievingstartknowing.com and delivers evidence-based tactics training classes across the U.S.

Steve Kerber is the Director of the UL Firefighter Safety Research Institute.  He has led research within the fire service in the areas of ventilation, structural collapse, and fire dynamics.  Steve is a 13-year veteran of the fire service with most of his service at the College Park Fire Department in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where he served at ranks up through Deputy Chief.  He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland and is currently working on his doctorate at Lund University in Sweden.  Steve has also been appointed to the rank of Honorary Battalion Chief by the FDNY and was named the 2014 ISFSI and Fire Engineering George D. Post Instructor of the Year.

Jeff is the District Chief of the Fire Training Division for the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department as well as a Senior Captain in the Houston Fire Department assigned as a Safety Officer on the southwest side of town.  He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Fire Science and a Master’s of Science in Emergency Services Management.  Jeff has earned the professional designations of a Chief Training Officer and a Fire Service Chief Executive Officer.  He was selected to serve as a stakeholder with FSTAR (Fire Safety Through Advanced Research) program and as technical panelist for the SMARTER (Science, Medicine, And Research Technology for Emergency Responders) two-year grant funded program.  Jeff led HFD’s participation in the ALIVE (Advanced Learning through Interactive Visual Environments) training program with New York University Poly-Tech and contributed to the modules on Residential Fires, Improving Cardiovascular Health, and Tactical Decision Making. In 2016, he was awarded the Dennis Elkins Memorial Medal for outstanding performance in a staff position while working to improve firefighter safety in HFD with the development of the Modern Fire Dynamics training program.

Battalion Chief Frank Leeb is a 25 year veteran of the FDNY currently assigned to Battalion 46. Frank holds a BS degree in Fire Service Administration from SUNY and a Masters degree in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS).  Additionally, Frank serves as a technical committee member for NFPA 1710 and serves on the advisory panel for the UL FSRI “Study of Coordinated Attack in Acquired Structures.”

Dan holds a Master’s of Science in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland and a PhD from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Throughout his career, he has performed research focused on fire suppression, large fire measurements, fire investigation, and firefighter safety. Dan has conducted fire investigation related studies over a wide range of topics that include firefighter line-of-duty deaths and injuries; the post-earthquake fires in Kobe, Japan; oil field fires in Kuwait; the Station Night Club fire; and the Cook County Administration Building fire in Chicago. Dan is a dedicated fire service researcher as well as educator and was presented the Fire Engineering/ISFSI Instructor of the Year Award in 2009.

Peter Van Dorpe is currently the Fire Chief of the Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Fire Protection District in Illinois. Chief Van Dorpe began his Fire Service career in April of 1980 as a Firefighter on Truck Co. #22 for the City of Chicago Fire Department; where he rose through the ranks including Engineer, Lieutenant, Captain, Battalion Chief, eventually retiring in October of 2013 as a District Chief for the Division of Training. Among Chief Van Dorpe’s Line experience, he was also the Lead Instructor for the Chicago Fire Departments Fire Officer School from 2005 to 2010 as well as a Field Instructor for the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute where he is still actively involved in Firefighter Training. Chief Van Dorpe obtained an Associate’s Degree in Fire Science from the Chicago city-wide Colleges; moving on to obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree in Fire Science Management from the Southern Illinois University. Chief Van Dorpe has also taught “Building Construction for the Fire Service” at Harold Washington College’s Fire Science Program. Chief Van Dorpe has been actively involved in research by being a subject matter expert on multiple UL and NIST studies dating back to 2007. Chief Van Dorpe has strived to give back to the fire service through ways of education and training which has led to him delivering the 2012 FDIC Keynote Speech as well as being awarded the 2016 Fire Engineering/ISFSI George D. Post Instructor of the Year award.

Craig holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas-Austin.  During his graduate studies, Craig worked with the Austin Fire Department on analyzing firefighter compliance to changes in standard operating guidelines and on characterizing the impact of forced ventilation on room-scale fires.  Since graduation, Craig has conducted full-scale residential fire experiments designed to characterize the thermal environment within the structure as well as exposed firefighter personal protective equipment.  Craig is also a developer of NIST’s Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) Version 6.  He has used FDS to study the fire dynamics and thermal environment of fires that resulted in line-of-duty deaths and injuries to firefighters.  Craig is a primary member of the team building FireCARES.org, an online tool for the fire service to help ensure fire departments are appropriately matching their resources to the risk within their community.