R. Thomas Long

Biography

 Mr. Long is a Corporate Vice President in charge of the domestic Exponent offices and a Principal Engineer in Exponent’s Thermal Sciences practice as well as the Director of Exponent’s Maryland office. Mr. Long applies fire protection engineering principles to the analysis of active and passive building fire protection and life safety systems, material fire performance, ignition of liquid, gaseous, and solid fuels, flamespread, and fire modeling. He specializes in the prevention, engineering and causative analysis, and origin and cause investigation of fires, explosions, and other thermal events.  Mr. Long provides building and fire protection code consultation and engineered performance-based solutions for the installation and operation of fire protection and life safety systems, including automatic fire sprinkler systems, automatic fire alarm and detection systems, commercial cooking fire protection systems, fire protection water infrastructure, wet and dry chemical systems, smoke control systems, and occupant egress systems in residential, commercial, industrial, storage, manufacturing, processing, and other occupancies. Mr. Long has specific experience in the evaluation and inspection of building, facility, and fire protection system design, installation, operation, and code compliance for compliance with nationally and internationally accepted building and fire safety codes, standards, regulations, and guidelines, including model code families published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the International Code Council (ICC). Mr. Long has acted as a representative and liaison between clients and Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs). Mr. Long also has special expertise in the third-party engineering review of combustion systems. Mr. Long has significant experience in evaluating the fire safety performance of consumer products as part of potential fire, burn, and overheating recall investigations. Mr. Long has specific experience in analyzing sprinkler system failures related to freezing events and inadvertent operations, which includes analyzing the design, installation, maintenance, and code compliance of the system. Mr. Long conducts fire and explosion origin and cause investigations, and fire hazard analysis, and has investigated and analyzed numerous losses ranging from residential fires to explosions and fires involving industrial, commercial, residential, high-rise, manufacturing, storage, power generation, petroleum, food processing, chemical occupancies and facilities. He has investigated and analyzed numerous incidents involving welding and hot work operations, mechanical and HVAC equipment, firefighter PPE, textiles, garments, scalds, burns, and thermal injuries, consumer products, appliances, utilities, candles, self-heating materials, residential and commercial cooking equipment, mattresses, upholstered furniture, automotive, aviation, rail, and marine vehicles, as well as solid fuel, propane and natural gas appliances, regulators, valves, and fuel gas systems (both portable and fixed). He has provided testimony as an expert witness in various courts regarding fire protection system design and performance, root cause analysis of sprinkler system failures, fire origin and cause, welding and hot work, vehicle and marine fires, building construction and egress, smoke control, and flammability of consumer products and materials, amongst other topics. Mr. Long has extensive fire and flammability research experience with numerous small, intermediate, and large-scale fire and flammability nationally and internationally testing protocols and methods, including those published by the ASTM, NFPA, CBHFTI, FM, UFAC, ISO, UL, and in the CFR. Mr. Long has extensive experience conducting fire testing Lithium ion batteries used in consumer devices, electronics, energy storage systems, and electric drive vehicles. Prior to joining Exponent, Mr. Long conducted fire and flammability research at the University of Maryland, Department of Fire Protection Engineering and was the lab manager responsible for the remodeling and construction of the fire research laboratories during his tenure. During his graduate research assistantship, he was responsible for the design, construction, and operation of the FIST apparatus to characterize the combustion of solid materials in normal and subsequently in reduced gravity environments. This work was funded by NASA.

Research Interest

 Thermal Sciences