Meet Our Fire Experts

Herbert W. Stansberry II
Herb Stansberry is the Engineering Supervisor at Intertek’s Elmendorf, Texas testing facility. Herb was first exposed to fire testing in 1990, when employed with Omega Point Laboratories. During his career, Herb has been involved with conducting standardized fire tests including the Steiner Tunnel (ASTM E84), furniture and room calorimetry, fire resistance testing of building materials, expansion joint systems and through-penetration firestops for commercial construction and nuclear power plant installations, the White House Roofing test, Intermediate Scale Multi-story Apparatus (ISMA) testing and has been involved in test programs for non-standard testing, for litigation reconstruction and standards development as well as many fire test programs for the nuclear industry. Herb’s primary role is the technical oversight and exploration/expansion of the laboratory’s test programs and capabilities. Herb has also worked in the commercial construction industry as a system integrator with over a decade of experience engaging and/or partnering with facility owners, architects, specifying engineers, AHJs, inspectors and commissioning agents.

Herb is currently active with ASTM Committee E05 on Fire Standards, serving as the Chairman of Subcommittee E05.11 on Fire Resistance, Subcommittee E06.21 and UL’s Standards Technical Panels.

Ethan Grove
Ethan Grove is the Manager of both Laboratory Fire Testing as well as Mobile Fire Apparatus Testing at Intertek’s York, PA test facility. Ethan began his tenure in 2011 as a test technician, assisting in bringing the lab and its equipment online and accredited for testing. Through his career, he has advanced up to Manager of the lab after bringing equipment online such as the Steiner tunnel, roof testing apparatus, an Intermediate-scale Multistory Testing Apparatus (ISMA), a full-scale vertical furnace, a hood calorimeter, and a radiant panel for exterior walls. Ethan is involved in several ASTM E05 task groups and subcommittees for test methods linked to the equipment he has commissioned.

In 2021, Ethan and several members of his team started Intertek’s Mobile Fire Apparatus Testing group, which provides testing services for equipment owned and operated by fire departments and commercial fire brigades in and around the York, PA area, extending to Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. Ethan is leading the effort to create and commission new and more accurate testing equipment, which will provide superior repeatability and safety for the testing required by NFPA and compliant municipalities. Ethan has over 8 years in the volunteer fire service as a firefighter and over 11 years of accredited testing experience, both in test execution and management, and is increasing Intertek’s presence in NFPA for the specific test committees that Intertek tests to.

Deepesh Srivastava
Deepesh is a testing and certification services professional and has been working in this field for 14 years. From 2011 to 2016, Deepesh Srivastava worked with an international fire rated glass manufacturer and was involved in fire testing of glazed applications to various BS and EN fire resistance test methods. In August 2016, Deepesh Srivastava joined Intertek's Building and Construction team in UAE and has been handling fire testing and certification projects including activities like writing test plans, product sampling, fire testing, preparation of evaluation reports/certification documents and carrying out audits as part of follow up service inspections. His area of key focus at Intertek has been fire doors and glazed applications based on his previous work experience He is currently working as the Evaluation Services Manager in UK and acts as an approved reviewer for projects related to fire doors and glazed applications which involves making evaluation decisions related to test standards like BS 476 Part 22, EN 1364-1, EN 1634-1, EN 1364-3, UL 10C, NFPA 252, UL 10B, UL 263 and ASTM E119.

Juan Flores
Juan Flores is a Chief Engineer at our Elmendorf, TX Testing Facility. Juan has over two decades of experience in fire testing and certification of building products. He actively participates in standards development organizations for fire testing. Juan has served as an industry advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the IMO Sub-Committee on Fire Protection for work associated with the IMO 2010 Fire Test Procedures Code. He is a Licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Texas.

Salvatore Balletta
Sal is the lead Fire Testing Technician at Intertek Coquitlam, and his primary role involves testing various Building Products per North American fire standards. Sal has 7+ years of experience testing to the requirements of numerous large-scale standards such as ASTM E108, ASTM E119, ASTM E814, UL 10(b) and (c), NFPA 286, and their Canadian equivalent standards.

Emma Amiralaei
Emma Amiralaei is the Regional Evaluation Services Manager and has been with Intertek since 2012. She has been involved with certification of various building products per US and Canadian fire test standards. Emma's expertise includes various building product categories such as roofing, siding/cladding, insulations, and coatings. Emma is a licensed engineer in British Columbia, Canada.

Chad Naggs
Chad Naggs has been with Intertek since 2011 and is currently the Technical Team Lead for Fire Testing in Middleton, WI. Before Intertek his background was in construction where he was a rough framer building homes. While at Intertek, Chad has been involved with designing and rebuilding both our mid and large scale size furnaces as well as many other lab equipment upgrades. Chad is the Subject Matter Expert for Fire Testing of Doors (swinging, sliding and elevators), Walls, Roofing and Solar/PV/BIPV products. Some standards include UL10B, UL10C, ASTM E119, ASTM E814, ASTM E108 and UL790. He is also involved in Solar Fire Testing technical committees for the following standards UL2703, UL1703 and UL61730-2.

Les Hopkins
Les Hopkins is the Large Scale Fire Resistance Manager for the Intertek Elmendorf, TX laboratory. His fire testing career started in 2004 when he joined Omega Point Laboratories as the shipping/receiving clerk. Throughout his career he has advanced through several roles with Intertek including Customer Operations Specialist Team Lead (US and Canada), Site Safety Coordinator and Facilities Coordinator. In 2022 he was appointed the position of Large Scale Fire Resistance Manager where he now leads a team of 6 Engineers and 7 lab technicians, in conducting tests such as ASTM E119, NFPA 285, ASTM E2307 and CAN/ULC-S134, among many others.

Karl Houser
Karl Houser brings over 20 years of experience as a fire protection engineering consultant with 35 years of fire protection experience. In addition to consulting, he has also specified, designed, and reviewed various fire protection systems. His work includes residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. Karl has performed inspections and fire safety/life safety assessments on hundreds of buildings and industrial processes. He has also provided expert witness and litigation services on several projects. Karl is also Intertek’s Principal member on the NFPA Technical Committee on Fire Tests. He recently re-joined the volunteer fire service in Maryland as an administrative/support member.

Justin Hendricks
Justin Hendricks is the Technical Manager, Openings for Intertek B&C. He has 15+ years of experience in fire door assembly testing and opening protective code compliance. Justin currently oversees the Fire Door Field Inspection and Labeling Group at Intertek, and also serves as a technical advisor for the Evaluation Services Group within Intertek. He is actively involved in various standards committees, including NFPA 80 and 105, as well as UL STP10, and represents Intertek at various door industry events and associations.