Andrew Blum, P.E., Cfei Email & Phone Number

Andrew Blum is a Principal Fire Protection Engineer at Fire & Risk Alliance. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in Fire Protection Engineering. His experience includes design, review, inspection, and analysis of fire protection system installations, fire hazard analyses, risk assessment, life safety/building code surveys, computer fire modeling, small and large-scale fire testing, interpretation and enforcement of fire/building codes, fire/explosion investigations, and fire protection systems failure analysis/investigations. Mr. Blum also has specific experience analyzing the fire hazard of lithium-ion batteries utilized in consumer products, electric vehicles, in storage configurations (warehousing), and in battery energy storage systems (BESS). Mr. Blum is a registered professional fire protection engineer and has extensive experience utilizing the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes, standards, and recommended practices, model building and fire codes from the International Code Council (ICC) and product safety standards, such as UL standards and listings in his analyses. He has experience in performing and supervising small- to large-scale fire tests. These tests include firsthand fire testing experience with nationally and internationally accepted standards published by the NFPA, ASTM, ISO, UL, FM, and CFR. He also has specific expertise in fire testing lithium-ion batteries used in consumer electronics/products, electric drive vehicles, in storage configurations and in BESS. This experience includes performing, analyzing, or reviewing (as a technical panelist) fire tests of lithium-ion batteries for the NFPA’s Fire Protection Research Foundation. Mr. Blum is an active member of the NFPA, ICC, ASTM, and Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) and is a technical committee member of NFPA 855, Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems. Mr. Blum has special expertise in evaluating BESS, analyzing their design and installations, including performing hazard mitigation analyses, fire protection system design, code compliance assessments, and emergency response procedures.