Dutchess County Fire investigators.....

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Saturday, March 24, 2007

Fire investigators retrace paths of blazes

Flame patterns, appliances can reveal causes

By Nik Bonopartis

Poughkeepsie Journal

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pb...EWS05/703240324

Follow the path of a fire's destruction from the area of the least amount of damage to the greatest.

That's one of the general rules for fire investigators when they start the process of elimination that leads to the cause of a fire.

So when they arrived at the scene of a house fire on Deckert Boulevard in LaGrange earlier this month, county fire investigators followed the fire signs to the playroom of the split-level house, where heat and smoke damage was heaviest around an old freezer.

Meat inside the freezer was rotten, "so we knew there was a problem with the freezer right off the bat," said Dave Schultz, a deputy coordinator with the county's Fire Investigation Division.

Then they looked for indicators to lead them to the point of ignition: "V patterns" - heat and smoke damage rising in the rough shape of the letter V - from the back of the freezer itself. On closer inspection, the old freezer's wiring turned out to be the culprit that set off the fire, leaving a family at least temporarily homeless.

Although they work almost exclusively behind the scenes, Dutchess County's fire investigators perform an essential service for the public and the fire chiefs they work for. The 12-member, all-volunteer team is called in by fire chiefs any time there's unusual destruction, unexplained ignitions, big monetary losses or deaths, and it works long after the first responders go home, scouring fire scenes for clues to scientifically prove how a fire was started.

Some fires, such as the freezer-sparked house fire in LaGrange, can be solved in a matter of hours if destruction is minimal or firefighters are able to knock down a fire, leaving a standing structure, heat marks and clues intact for investigators to pore over. In other cases - such as the December 2006 fire that destroyed the former Brass Anchor restaurant in Hyde Park - an investigation could take months, and involve laboratory tests, lengthy recreations of original scene conditions, photographs, sketches, floor plans, witness statements, consultation with outside experts and healthy debate among team members.

"If you have a small or medium amount of damage, our job is a lot easier," said Victor Zamaloff, another deputy coordinator. With the Brass Anchor, the amount of destruction and the workload led to a longer investigation, something he said fewer people are accustomed to because of the "CSI effect" where definitive conclusions can be reached quickly with high-tech equipment.

Each member has an area of expertise. Schultz is an electrical and plumbing expert. Zamaloff is a career firefighter and forensic photographer. Richard Prentice Jr., a senior investigator, is an explosives expert. Others are detectives, police officers and firefighters.

Typically, team members walk through a fire scene together to "read the fire." They survey the damage together and do an entire sweep as a team - from the outside of a structure to the inside, room by room, looking for clues.

Guidelines followed

Their conclusions must be based on the scientific method in accordance with guidelines set by the National Fire Protection Association, and if one or more team members can come up with a hypothesis at a fire scene, he has to convince the other members he's right until a consensus is reached. Only when all members agree can an official report be written.

"That's why you don't want to be sitting in the back of the van when we're arguing, er, discussing," Schultz said, prompting laughter from Prentice and Zamaloff in a recent interview.

In line with the National Fire Protection Assocation's standards, there are four official causes of fire:

- Accidental.

- Incendiary.

- Natural causes, including auto-ignition, lightning and spontaneous combustion.

- Undetermined, the classification used when the source can't be narrowed down and all other explanations have been ruled out.

Often, the undetermined classification applies when investigators have pinpointed the area a fire started, and the general source, but can't say with certainty if a particular item or electrical appliance was the exact point of origin.

"Sometimes a TV is next to a printer, which is next to a computer, and you can't find the exact point of origin," Zamaloff said.

Investigators also use witness statements to corroborate the evidence they collect from fire scenes. Most people are honest, and they say the biggest obstacles they encounter from witnesses - or victims - is embarrassment from inadvertently causing a fire.

As fire investigators become more experienced, even they sometimes find themselves surprised at the myriad ways a fire can start in a home or building. Prentice said he's found himself double-checking things in his own home after investigating fires after discovering a new danger.

In cases such as the Brass Anchor fire, where there were no witnesses, evidence from the scene has to stand on its own, making the investigation process even more important - and painstaking. In the highly publicized case of the Morey family slayings in Fishkill in January, fire investigators were in a somewhat similar situation, in that the widespread destruction from fire made their job more difficult.

But with five murder victims - and a concurrent criminal investigation - the investigators worked every step of the way in coordination with their counterparts in the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control and the state police, who handled the forensic side. In that case, fire investigators spent four days at the destroyed Morey family home, collecting evidence before they finally went home. Because it's a pending criminal case, they can't speak in detail about their investigation.

Although the members of the Fire Investigation Division are volunteers, the demands of their job can be great - in times of frequent fire activity equal or greater than the demands of a full-time job.

It's also a discipline that requires intellectual curiosity and a high level of training.

"You have to love what you're doing," Schultz said.

Reach Nik Bonopartis at newsroom@poughkeepsiejournal.com