A recent Saturday saw the completion of a 26-week program where ATF Special Agent Certified Fire Investigators (SACFIs) and SACFI-Candidates supplemented and trained with the Fire Investigations Unit of the District of Columbia's Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DCFEMS), while DCFEMS fire investigators attended training at the District's Metropolitan Police Department's Police Academy.
The DCFEMS is responsible for determining the origin and cause of all fires and explosions and conducting the necessary follow-up criminal investigation in cases of arson in Washington, D.C. If the cause of the fire is not obvious, investigators within the Fire Investigations Unit of the Office of the Fire Marshal are contacted to determine the origin and cause of the fire.
The Fire Marshal's office is staffed with fire investigators; however, only a few of these investigators possess law enforcement authority. Additionally, the DCFEMS Fire Investigation Unit is currently understaffed by approximately 25 percent. DCFEMS is addressing these critical deficiencies by sending fire investigators to MPD's Police Academy.
For the District of Columbia to have adequate coverage during this period and throughout the summer, DCFEMS called upon ATF for assistance and support. ATF provided the SACFIs to fill the shortage.
ATF SACFIs regularly investigate crimes of arson and arson-for-profit related cases, conduct fire-scene examinations, make origin and cause determinations, provide expert testimony, assists other special agents and prosecutors with investigations and conduct training for ATF agents and other federal, state and local fire investigators.
ATF’s Washington Field Division, which covers the District of Columbia, only has two SACFIs assigned to D.C., as well as one SACFI-candidate. Therefore, SACFIs were detailed to the Washington Field Division from other ATF field divisions around the country to fulfill the request from the DCFEMS. Approximately 56 ATF CFIs provided support to this arson enforcement initiative with an estimated total cost of a little more than $215,000.
During this initiative, SACFIs were broken down into teams of two, with each team serving a 12-day rotation in the District. Additionally, a SACFI was parred with a SACFI-candidate. SACFI candidates complete a two-year training program that includes fire origin and cause determination, fire dynamics, fire modeling, building construction, electricity and fire causation, health and safety, scene reconstruction and evidence collection. The program relies on rigorous training, education and experience to provide agents with the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to obtain credentials to testify as expert witnesses in the field of fire origin and cause. A significant part of the training is mentoring the candidates by senior CFIs. This partnership with the DCFEMS helped address this training requirement for the CFI-candidates.
The ATF CFIs assigned to work and train with DCFEMS were based in the Fire Investigative Unit, located at Engine 24 in D.C.’s Petworth Neighborhood. The teams would react to every fire the department was called upon to respond, just as the city’s fire marshals, and would use ATF issued vehicles and equipment. ATF SACFIs responded 24 hours a day, seven days a week to investigate all fires, along with DCFEMS personnel. This initiative also provided ATF special agent certified fire investigators the experience of working in an urban environment, as well as serving the nation’s capital.
Arson is a violent crime and this initiative falls within the ATF’s Frontline criminal enforcement strategy for reducing violent crime and protecting the public.
“This program provided an excellent opportunity for our CFIs to gain valuable experience. At the same time, this gave the fire department the breathing room necessary to get their new investigators trained and up to speed,” said ATF Washington Field Division Special Agent in Charge Charles E. Smith.
The District of Columbia has been designated as an ATF Arson Task Force city since the early 1980s and currently has an active arson and explosives task force. This task force comprises members from ATF, DCFEMS and the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch.
“ATF and the D.C. Fire Department hold a vital relationship as partners in arson detection and criminal investigations,” said Lt. Adam Young Jr., unit commander of the DCFEMS Fire/Arson/Explosion/Investigation Unit.
“ATF and the D.C. Fire Department have a long history of cooperation in joint training and working on our established arson task forces,” Smith said. “This program provided an excellent opportunity for ATF CFIs and D.C. Fire and EMS to work hand in hand gaining valuable experience, especially for those who are unfamiliar with densely populated urban environments.”
Over the past several years, ATF has investigated numerous fire fatalities with DCFEMS and MPD. Most recently ATF was involved with investigating a fatal apartment fire on Isherwood Street in Northeast, D.C., as well as a quadruple homicide/arson in the Woodley Park neighborhood in Northwest, D.C.
JAN KEMP is a public affairs specialist at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters in Washington, D.C.
