Areas served · California
Forensic Engineering in Los Angeles
Our West Coast office is here in Los Angeles: 11500 W. Olympic Blvd #400, Los Angeles, California 90064.
In and around Los Angeles
What we investigate in Los Angeles
Los Angeles sits above hundreds of mapped fault traces, so the losses we evaluate here start with seismic exposure, alongside the wildfire that runs on Santa Ana winds and the hillside landslides that follow winter rain. We document what actually failed, and a licensed engineer responds within 24 hours.
The conditions we see in Los Angeles
The city sits above hundreds of mapped fault traces, including the Puente Hills blind thrust beneath downtown and the Hollywood and Santa Monica faults along the basin's northern edge. The 1994 Northridge earthquake, a magnitude 6.7 blind-thrust event under the San Fernando Valley, and the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, which ruptured the ground surface, exposed the weakness in the local building stock: soft-story apartments and non-ductile concrete that fail when the ground moves.
With a median housing age around 1960, Los Angeles is built largely of early-1900s bungalows and 1950s-60s dingbat apartments that put living space over open tuck-under parking. Under Ordinance 183893, LADBS identified roughly 13,500 wood-frame soft-story buildings needing seismic retrofit. Hillside neighborhoods add cut-and-fill slopes and canyon-edge construction pressed against chaparral, where post-fire slopes shed debris flows in winter rain.
How we help in Los Angeles
The evaluations Los Angeles cases usually call for
- Seismic and structural evaluation
When a soft-story frame racks or non-ductile concrete cracks after shaking, the question is whether the damage is seismic, prior movement, or a retrofit that was never completed. Our licensed engineers evaluate the structure against its construction era and document what caused the failure.
Our structural engineering services- Slope, debris-flow, and water loss investigation
On hillside lots we investigate slope failure, canyon-edge movement, and the debris flows that come off denuded slopes after fire. We determine whether the cause is site conditions, drainage, or construction, and ground every conclusion in the physical evidence.
Our forensic engineering services
Fire origin & cause
Fire origin and cause in Los Angeles
In January 2025 the Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures during Santa Ana winds gusting near 100 mph, spreading fire through neighborhoods built directly against the chaparral. When flames move house to house at that speed, the origin of any one loss and the question of what it was worth are easy to assume and hard to prove.
Our NAFI-certified investigators apply NFPA 921: a systematic scene examination, burn and char patterns traced back to the area of origin, and evaluation of the electrical and mechanical systems, carried to a determination of accidental or incendiary cause. We preserve the evidence before it is disturbed, then support the finding with a written report and testimony at deposition and trial.
Fires we investigate
- Residential and commercial fires
- Wildland-urban interface fires
- Electrical and appliance fires
- Vehicle fires
- Industrial fires and explosions
Common questions
Forensic engineering in Los Angeles, California
A different question about your case? An engineer, not a call center, answers within 24 hours.
Is cracking in my building from the earthquake or from age?
It can be either. Older soft-story and non-ductile stock across Los Angeles moves under shaking, but prior settlement and deferred maintenance leave similar cracks. We evaluate the pattern against the building's era and the event before assigning a cause.
Can you investigate debris-flow damage below a burn scar?
Yes. After a fire denudes a slope, winter rain can drive debris flows into structures downhill. We evaluate the failure and the site to document whether the damage came from the flow, drainage, or a pre-existing condition.
Do you charge travel to reach Los Angeles?
No. We work Los Angeles-area cases from our Omaha lab and Los Angeles office with no travel charges, and a licensed engineer responds within 24 hours.
Have a loss that needs answers?
Tell us what happened. An engineer, not a call center, will review your case.