The paper discusses issues related to the certification of forensic fire experts in forensic institutions of the federal fire service of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (EMERCOM of Russia). Particular attention is given to the staffing and balance of experts who have the right to carry out expert examination under competencies approved by the EMERCOM of Russia. It is shown that in many expert departments there are no experts in most of the fields of forensic fire examination approved by the EMERCOM of Russia. The authors draw attention to the need to unify the specializations of forensic fire examinations with other expert institutions and organizations. The number of specializations in forensic fire examination and the improvement of training of fire experts are discussed. It is proposed to reduce the number of specializations in forensic fire examination approved as the competence requirements for employees of the federal fire service of the EMERCOM of Russia for «Forensic fire examination» specialization. In order to increase the efficiency of forensic expert activities, the authors recommend creating and consistently maintaining a database of forensic fire experts in Russia.