John Lentini is one of a handful of people certified to conduct both fire scene investigations and fire debris analysis. He has personally conducted more than 2,000 fire scene inspections and has appeared as an expert witness on more than 200 occasions. He is an active proponent of standards for fire and other forensic investigations. He is a member of the NFPA Technical Committee on Fire Investigations (921), the Technical Committee on Fire Investigator Professional Qualifications (1033) and has served three terms as chair of ASTM Committee E30 on Forensic Science.
John is a past Chairman of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) Criminalistics Section. He also serves on the NIST/OSAC Subcommittee on Fire and Explosion Investigations. He received the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) 2015 “Person of the Year Award” in recognition of his work in moving the fire investigation profession forward and in helping to prevent or reverse miscarriages of justice in arson cases.
He is now an independent consultant living in the Florida Keys and doing business as Scientific Fire Analysis. His book, Scientific Protocols for Fire Investigation, now in its second edition, was published by CRC Press in 2013. He has published recently in the American Bar Association’s SciTechLawyer, and was instrumental in producing the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s study of Fire Investigation. His website is www.firescientist.com.
