He holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Washington. Avril has worked for various firms as a project engineer and/or maintenance engineer for about 20 years. He was hired by Norpac Engineering and did investigations into fire losses and other insurance claims in1978. In 1980 he left Norpac and started his own firm called Independent Forensics, Inc.

Currently he is involved in investigations pertaining to fire losses associated with structures and vehicles. He serves as an expert witness in fire science for attorneys.

In 1992 the State of Washington made the licensing of fire investigators as Private Investigators mandatory. With the help of other members of two private investigator organizations (The Pacific Northwest Association of Investigators and the Washington Association of Legal Investigators) Avril has spent time working on changes in the Laws and the State Administrative Codes.

During all of Avril’s work as an investigator, he says he has always worked hard to follow the NAFI Code of Ethics.

Avril states, "I do feel that the most important is No. 10:

Robert Farley has been an active member of NAFI for over 15 years. He has spent over twenty years in the fire service, the last twelve concentrating on fire investigations. He started his fire service career in 1979 in his hometown of Cornish, New Hampshire. He left home a year later and began working as a permanent firefighter in Nantucket, Massachusetts. After getting married, Farley left Nantucket and joined the Dover, New Hampshire Fire & Rescue. He worked his way up the ranks to Lieutenant in the Fire Prevention Bureau.

In 1989, Farley was hired as an investigator for the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office. Farley has also maintained his love for fire suppression by joining the local call department, where he currently serves as a Lieutenant in Pembroke, New Hampshire, where he resides with his wife and three daughters.

In 1991, Farley became a CFI, and joined the local New Hampshire Chapter of the IAAI. Farley has served on the Board of Directors for the New Hampshire chapter since 1993. Investigator Farley has also been very active in many other fire service organizations including

John L. Odom, CFEI first began investigating fires part time while he was a volunteer fireman in California in the early sixties and has been at it continuously since.

Odom worked in the fire investigation field full time from 1974 until 1988, doing both field and laboratory work. In 1986 he suffered a severe heat stroke, which limited his physical ability to do large fire scene work. In 1988 He began teaching chemistry full time at the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences. Currently he does little on-scene work, but continues to do laboratory analysis of fire related evidence, and consulting for the legal profession.

Odom feels that fire investigation has changed a great deal in the last 35 years. "First, a fire is more likely to be investigated. Second, the investigations are much more likely to be based on sound scientific principles. Analytical chemistry has made great strides in support of the fire investigation profession. The gas chromatograph has evolved from a crude home made simple device to a reliable, easy to use, commercially made instrument with a sensitivity that has improved by a thousand fold. Many of the "old wives tales" of fire investigation have been discredited. One thing, which has not improved, is the fact that some investigators and the insurance companies that employ them are more interested in denying a claim, or finding a deep pocket for subrogation, than in finding the truth about fire."

Carl J. Natale, CFEI is President of UBA, Fire and Explosion Investigators in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has over 35 years of practical experience investigating the origin and cause of fires and explosions. Specializing in the flammable gas and liquids industry, gas distribution and transmission industry, aviation, marine, technical electrical and mechanical equipment failures. He provides consulting and expert testimony for all types of fires including those caused by failures in heating and cooling devices, appliances and specialty equipment. He has extensive experience in code compliance and post fire reconstruction for attorneys.

Natale became a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator through NAFI in February of 1986. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has licensed him as a Private Investigator he also holds a license for Hazardous Material Handling & Site Inspection and an Asbestos Occupations Certification. Natale has also achieved the status of Multi-Engine Instrument Rated Pilot by the FAA.

Ralph E. Snavely, Sr. has been a fixture in the Fire/Explosion Investigation field since 1963.

Since 1982 Snavely has enjoyed being president and owner of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania offices of William Alvine Associates, Inc.

With technological improvements and the cutting back of his court appearances, Snavely has been able devote more time to his community. He regularly helps the local government remove potential fire hazards in run-down structures and properties.

One of his written achievements includes his co-authoring of an article titled "Accelerant Classification by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry and Multivariate Pattern Recognition" with Dr. James K. Hardy and Beijing Tan of the University of Akron, Ohio.

Mr. & Mrs. Snavely enjoy traveling to Europe each spring and to Mexico each November. They have a son who owns a Private Detective Agency, for which Snavely sits on the Board of Directors.

Peter S. Vallas, CFEI, CFII has been involved in the area of Fire/Explosion Investigation for 21 years. Mr. Vallas has worked in the areas of Fire Origin & Cause, Arson Detection, Forensic Evidence Handling Storage, Vehicle Fires, Boiler/HVAC, and Fire Code Research.

In addition to being a CFEI and CFII through NAFI, He is a New York State Certified Investigator and has successfully completed the New York State Certified Cause & Origin Determination Course #0065.