Walter Godfrey, founder and president of Fire/Reconstruction Consultants, Inc. in Cape Canaveral, Fla., succeeded by taking advantage of a niche market: marine fire and explosion investigations. He travels around the world to make first-hand evaluations and determine the origins of fires, and his engineering team analyzes the various sources of the fires to assist his efforts.

When the company was founded in the early 1980s, no other fire investigation company specialized in marine fires, Godfrey said.  After being asked to investigate a boat fire for a client, Godfrey, with 30 years of experience as a licensed captain, focused on gearing Fire/Reconstruction Consultants’ services toward a specialization in that area.

They have a forensic dive team and utilize remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to complete underwater fire and explosion investigations. The company also reconstructs above-water scenes in instances where the site is largely destroyed, which happens frequently in rural Central America, South America and the Caribbean due to a lack of firefighting efforts.

The economy has caused a downturn in the marine industry; boat manufacturers are closing, fuel costs are high, less goods are being shipped and there are fewer vessels on the water due to less personal time for boat owners. But Fire/Reconstruction Consultants stays strong by picking up the slack of marine investigations, and by providing technical investigations for property and casualty insurers, manufactures and lawyers involved with personal injury and death cases. With such specialized offerings and a diversified revenue stream, Godfrey and his team are in a good position to weather this economic storm.

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