Congratulations to Deputy Chief Steve Tancrell - he was one of 31 graduates from the Advanced Fire Investigation program at the Massachusetts Fire Academy (see press release below). For Immediate Release: October 24, 2014 Contact: Jennifer Mieth, (978) 567-3189 Fire and Police Graduate Advanced Fire Investigation Course State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan and Deputy State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey are pleased to announce the graduation of 31 members of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy’s six-day Advanced Fire Investigation course on Thursday, October 23, 2014. This rigorous professional training provides fire, and state and local police officers with the advanced skills to accurately determine the origin and cause of fires in their jurisdictions and together, build solid, prosecutable cases. The Massachusetts Firefighting Academy, a division of the Department of Fire Services, offers this program, tuition-free. Team Concept of Fire Investigation State Fire Marshal Coan said, “The team concept of fire investigation has been used successfully in Massachusetts for over a decade and it starts with joint training.” He added, “When police and fire are trained in the same techniques and procedures together, the consistency leads to accurate origin and cause determinations, and when arson is the cause, solid criminal cases.” Deputy State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey said, “This course provides students with fire scene experience from investigation through courtroom testimony. They are exposed to the investigatory process as outlined in the National Fire Protection Association Standard 921: Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations.” 31 Graduates: 24 Firefighters and Three Local Police & Four State Police Officers The 31 graduates, including three local police officers, four Massachusetts State Police officer and 24 firefighters, represent the following agencies: Amherst Fire Department Attleboro Police Department Beverly Fire Department Boston Fire Department Brockton Fire Department Cambridge Fire Department Dunstable Fire Department Framingham Fire Department Lawrence Fire Department Lynn Fire Department Mass. State Police Milton Fire Department Newton Fire Department Oxford Fire Department Somerville Fire Department Southborough Fire Department Southbridge Fire Department Stoneham Police Department Taunton Fire Department Uxbridge Fire Department Webster Police Department Weymouth Fire Department Worcester Fire Department The six-day advanced fire investigation course covers the concepts of fire behavior, scene examination, fire scene documentation, evidence collection, witness interviewing, and management of major fire investigations in more depth than the basic fire investigation class. It also addresses the legal issues of managing fire scenes, evidence collection, and concludes with practical exercises of participating in the courtroom process. Students give mock depositions and participate in both a mock grand jury and a mock trial. The program covers unintentional fires, intentionally set fires, fires, and fatal fires. Students learn how to effectively collect evidence samples, how and when to avail themselves of resources such as accelerant-detection canines, state police fire investigators in the Office of the State Fire Marshal, and technical experts such as electricians. Origin and Cause Determination Fire investigators work to first determine the point of origin of the fire and then its cause. Once they are able to determine where the fire started, they often rely on witness statements to identify the possible sources of ignition at that point and then work to eliminate each possible one, until they are left with only one most probable cause. Fire investigators are trained to examine a fire scene by going from the minimum amount of burn damage to the point or points with the maximum amount. The rationale being that the fire has been burning longest where the most damage is and that is often where the fire began. In addition, they learn to identify fire patterns which can help fire investigators determine the intensity and duration of the fire, and the direction the fire spread. Witness-Driven Protocol Massachusetts uses a witness-driven protocol of fire investigation. Investigators want to interview people who know the building or saw the fire start as quickly as possible while memories are fresh or before those displaced by the fire become hard to locate. Investigators compare the witness statements to the evidence found in the forensic scene examination to determine the cause of the fire. With possibly a large number of people to interview quickly, the benefit of the added manpower a team investigation brings is obvious. Investigators compare notes and often need to re-interview witnesses for clarification. A deep understanding of fire behavior is essential to evaluating witness statements. Coan said, “It is a challenge to determine the cause of the fire when so much of the needed evidence is destroyed by the fire itself. Fires can also create evidence which assists investigators. This training provides our local fire and police investigators with the skills and knowledge to meet that challenge.”
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 15:30:54 +0000
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