President: Peter Mansi

President: Peter Mansi IAAI-CFI

Peter has been an operational fire officer within the London Fire Brigade for over 27 years; the last nine of those as a Fire Investigator and since 2001 a Station Manager within the Fire Investigation Group. In October 2008 he took up post as the Borough Commander of the City of London and from May 2009 will also be managing the Fire Investigation Group at its new central location within the City of London.

In October 2001, he helped instigate the Arson Reduction Team, analysing and addressing the extensive problem of arson in London. To this end, he was instrumental in establishing Borough Arson Liaison Officers in each of the 33 boroughs within London, consisting of a police officer and a fire officer to focus on ‘all things arson’ within their respective boroughs. He has supported the development of Forensic Arson Liaison Officers with Scotland Yard’s SCD4 within each of the borough teams.

Peter was responsible for writing the Memorandum of Understanding between the London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police Service, which was agreed and signed in January 2003 and also the Memorandum of Understanding between the London Fire Brigade and Crimestoppers London, which was signed in March 2004.

Having been part of the management team that supervises 28 dedicated fire investigation officers, 2 of whom are canine hydrocarbon handlers and several officers who are on fire investigation development programmes in London, he still actively investigates fires and has developed the role of a ‘protracted scene manager’ at complex, high profile or protracted fire investigations. One of Peter’s roles within the London Fire Brigade is as a Hazardous Materials and Environmental Protection Officer (HazMat). Peter was the lead fire investigator on the double fire-fighter fatalities investigation that occurred in Bethnal Green, East London in July 2004; he was the lead fire investigator on the Iron Mountain storage facility major fire in Bow, East London, which attracted 20 fire engines and took several days to extinguish. He is investigating the origin, cause and development of a fire in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, which claimed the lives of two fire fighters in September 2007 and reviewing the fire investigation into the fire in Warwickshire that claimed the lives of four fire fighters in November 2007.

Peter was involved with a working group during 2004/5, which developed the National Occupational Standards for Fire Investigation within the UK and was published in 2005. He also sits on the IAAI Fire Investigation Standards Committee (FISC), the IAAI Membership Committee and the IAAI Offshore Training Committee. Peter is serving as a Director on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Arson Investigators (Global),

He is studying for a PhD by carrying out research on the methodology of arson investigations focusing particularly on the arsonist(s) to help improve the prosecuting rates that currently exist (currently approximately 3%). He has recently published in the UK and USA his ‘Ten Stage System’ to assist in serial arson investigations. Peter is a Registered Forensic Practitioner and a Member of the Forensic Science Society.

Vice President: John Galvin

John has been a serving Fire Officer with the London Fire Brigade for over 25 years in both Operational and Specialist roles and has been a dedicated Fire Investigation Officer since 1995. He was one of the first 2 people in the UK to become a Certified Fire Investigation Officer whilst attending the IAAI AGM in Nevada, USA in April 2003. John has been instrumental in adapting and establishing the CFI programme within the UK.

John has attended and instructed on many fire investigation courses both in the UK and USA including the ATF CFI re-cert course.

Prior to his fire service career John was an aeronautical engineer. His engineering background included both electrical and instrumentation systems with a period working in R & D.

John is currently studying at third level for a BSc (Hons) in Technology.

As a committee member John deals with all issues relating to membership including applications.

Secretary: Claire Purton

Claire has supported victims of arson for over 7 years during her role as co-ordinator for East Sussex Fire Victim Support Unit. She has also helped victims of arson within her role in the Victim Support Team in Hastings.

She has become one of a team of six practitioners within the newly formed London Fire Brigade 'Arson Task Force' operating pan-London. She is currently concentrating on takling arson within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets which has one of the highest amounts of deliberate fire setting in the UK.

She has attended fire investigation training courses in the USA, at the IAAI AGM in St Louis, and throughout the UK, including Moreton-in-Marsh NAFI/NFPA Seminar, Gardiner Associates "Live, Learn, Pass It On" and the Cleveland International Fire Investigation Conference.

Claire is the committee member who is responsible for Press and PR for the UK Chapter.

Treasurer: Dave Stokes

Dave Stokes is a serving Fire Officer with the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service and is currently Station Commander of Stevenage Fire Station.

He has been an active fire investigation officer for just over 13 years and a firefighter for 34 years. He has trained in fire investigation with the Fire Service College, Gardiners Associates and more recently successfully completed the ATF course at FLETC in the USA.

Training & Education: Rennie Chivers

Rennie is a Detective Sergeant on Scenes of Crime with Essex Police. His career spans 30 years and he has a wide variety of policing experience including CID, major investigations, custody officer, and as a police trainer he specialised in interview techniques and post probationer training. Since joining the Scientific Support Department he has specialised in Fire Investigation and has assumed responsibility for developing greater forensic awareness at fire scenes among police and fire officers.

In August 2004, Rennie completed the ATF’s 2 week “Advanced Cause & Origin and Courtroom Techniques” course in Georgia, USA.

Rennie is a Registered Forensic Practitioner as a Scene Examiner and a Fire Scene Examiner and is a Master of Science in Decision Making (City of London Polytechnic).

In July 2006 Rennie was awarded the prestigious Ustinov Award by the National Training Centre for Scientific Support after being chosen as the most meritous student passing the Diploma in Crime Scene Examination with Durham University (Dip CSE (Dunelm))

Membership & Newsletter: Joanne Morrissey

Jo is a Senior Forensic Practitioner with the Metropolitan Police Service in London. Jo has served with the MPS for fifteen years and is now the Lead Forensic Arson Liaison Officer for North West London and has the Met portfolio for liaison with the London Fire Brigade. Jo attended the ATF advanced origin and cause and courtroom techniques course at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre in the US.

Jo has given presentations at IAAI conferences in Nevada and Eire within the last year.

Website: Nick Carey

Nick Carey is a full-time Fire Investigator based at Acton, West London. He started his career in the London Fire Brigade (LFB) 24 years ago and has been a specialist Fire Investigator for almost 13 years.

In January 2002, Nick attended the ATF`s 2 week "Advanced Cause & Origin and Court Room Techniques" course in Brunswick, Georgia, USA.

In May 2002 "Fire Prevention & Fire Engineers Journal" published an article on applying Arc Fault Mapping Analysis to UK wiring systems. The article included the research carried out in North Carolina and included a UK case history.

In September 2002, following an assessment with the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners, he became the first Fire Officer in the UK to become a Registered Forensic Practitioner within the fire investigation discipline.

In October 2004 Nick was awarded the Forensic Science Society`s Fire Investigation diploma.

Nick is an IAAI Certified Fire Investigator.

Chapter Support: Roger Berrett

Bachelor of Science, Doctor of Philosophy in the faculty of Science (Birkbeck College, University of London), practicing forensic scientist for 32 years, formerly a Principal Scientist at the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory, (Scotland Yard) and, since 1988, exclusively specialising in fire investigation and related matters.

Currently a Consultant in fire investigation to a number of Companies, Individuals, Lawyers and Police organisations. Investigated approximately 800 fires in the United Kingdom, Germany, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Spain and lectured on the subject at various national and international conferences and training courses for Scientists, Police and Fire Brigade personnel. A founder member of the ‘Fire and Explosion Investigation Working Group’ of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes.

Member: Sheilah Hamilton

A Chemist by training, Sheilah also has degrees in Criminology and Hong Kong history where she studied the interaction of Hong Kong Government and private security from 1841 to 1941.

Sheilah's been a practicing forensic scientist since 1968 having worked in the Hong Kong Government Forensic laboratory for twenty years (1968-1988), the South Australian Government Forensic laboratory for 7 months in 1988 and also having run her own forensic consultancy for 12 years in Hong Kong as the only independent forensic scientist (1989-2000). In February 2001 she joined the University of Glamorgan as Principal Lecturer in Forensic Science but left in September 2005 to join the Building and Construction Department of the City University of Hong Kong as Associate Professor and resurrect her consultancy "Forensic Focus".

Whilst working in the Hong Kong lab she attended cases of suspicious fires and also analysed items from such scenes for traces of accelerants. Starting in 1990 she began investigating suspicious fires in Hong Kong and also in other parts of South East Asia (e.g. Philippines, Thailand, Peoples Republic of China). Sheilah’s also attended many courses and workshops on fire investigation.

In 2004-5 Sheilah was President of the South Wales branch of the Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE) and also served on the committee of the SE Wales branch of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

A Fellow of (i) the Royal Society of Chemistry, (ii) the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, (iii) the Institution of Fire Engineers and (iv) the Forensic Science Society.