BUNDY, GALE & SHIELDS, LLC  is an international consulting firm specializing in fire investigation and loss prevention services.  We believe that preventing losses -- loss of life, loss of property, loss of income, and loss of environmental quality, can best be achieved by studying and learning from actual loss events. While this may seem self evident, we have found that this simple truth is often overlooked or ignored in practice.

Understanding how and why things fail and, in turn, how these failures can lead to fires and explosions is a part of what BG&S is about.  These failures may be mechanical, electrical, or material in nature; however, often times the root-cause may be attributed to human or organizational failures.

Of course, all failures do not result in fires or explosions -- some may involve environmental impact from the release of hazardous materials without ignition, or some may involve flooding a high-rise building from a broken fire sprinkler pipe resulting in the loss of millions of dollars in water damage and business interruption. Understanding the cause of such incidents is the key to preventing them in the future.

When a fire does occur, reconstructing what was the cause can be a challenging process -- one that requires a combination of talents and experience. The starting place is to identify the place of fire origin. Once this is determined, there is a much better chance of determining the true cause. Individuals who specialize in this type of technical-detective work are sometimes termed "Origin and Cause Investigators." also simply known as fire or arson investigators. All of the BG&S principals are Certified Fire Investigators.

Loss prevention is also what BG&S is about. Loss prevention is a simple term with a very long description that is discussed further on our "Expertise Page." Simply said, we complete the loop by putting to work the firsthand knowledge we gain from our origin and cause determinations (often times on our hands and knees) by offering consulting services in fire prevention and protection engineering for all types of facilities and business lines.  Our expertise reaches from petroleum refineries and offshore platforms to semiconductor manufacturing facilities and high-rise office buildings.

Designing and constructing facilities for fire and life safety is a multidisciplinary function requiring knowledge and experience. Due to a series of catastrophic and now infamous explosions, fires and releases of hazardous materials that have happened since the early 1970's, both industry and legislative initiatives have been launched to find new ways to improve facility and operational safety. Managing risk is also a part of what BG&S is about. We understand the role that human and organizational factors play in causing accidents and we understand what successful risk management programs must address. Preventing loss by understanding their cause --that's what BG&S is about.