ASHES HOLD CLUES FOR INVESTIGATORS
Team of 12 and dog called Grover dig through rubble to find causes
Fire investigator Kevin Bureau, front, and two colleagues work in north Edmonton. After the fire is out, investigators are called in to try and sort out the causes of a blaze, dealing with both ruined property and upended lives.
The youngman stands on the sidewalk in his stocking feet, a blanket wrapped around his shivering shoulders.
He’s dishevelled, wildeyed, scared — his family’s apartment and all their belongings have just been destroyed by fire.
From the outside, his apartment looks barely touched, except for a window missing its glass.
Inside is a wreck. The walls are burnt black and the drywall is peeling from the frame. Pink insulation and debris cake the floors and the ceiling has gaping holes.
Fire investigators get none of the glory often associated with firefighting. They arrive once the fire is over to analyze the mess and interview traumatized victims. Firefighters deal with the flames; fire investigators deal with the aftermath — the faces of the people affected.
Kevin Bureau is an investigator who enjoys figuring out how fire works and talking to the public.
“We get to really interact with the people, sometimes on the worst day they’ve ever had. We get to help them put the pieces back together and get their lives sort of back together,” said Bureau, an investigator for 2-1/2 years.
Fire investigators examine blazes that cause property damage, injury or death. Any fire deemed suspicious is handed over to the Edmonton Police Service’s two-person arson unit.
Last year, the team of 12 former firefighters investigated 945 fires.
More than half of those were accidental and nearly a quarter were deliberately set.
The total damage estimate was $60 million, with the top causes being cooking oil and grease, followed by smokers’ material.
It’s already been a busy year for investigators with a recent rash of suspicious fires in the Westmount and Inglewood areas. Fire officials estimate there have been about 15 garbage, refuge, vehicle and fence fires in those areas over the past few months.
It can also be back-breaking work — fire investigators literally must dig through the rubble to pinpoint where a fire started, not an easy task when the fire is as massive and destructive as the one at the Roxy Theatre in January or at the condominium complex in northeast Edmonton in May. That fire was caused by a cigarette left in a container holding diaper material. “As an investigator, you can’t have an ego. You have to be humble because you may go on a string of calls where you can’t figure it out,” said Capt. Murray Steedsman, an investigator for seven years.
Investigators use a process of elimination, identifying potential sources of ignition and the area of origin as they move through the scene from the least amount of damage toward the most.
They photograp hand document fire scenes. They interview witnesses, bystanders and firefighters, and analyze fire behaviour and patterns. They examine how objects have been consumed by fire and how they burn. They may call in public employees who are experts in the trades and engineering to help them. They may also send samples to the RCMP lab in Edmonton, the only public lab in Canada that analyzes fire debris, to test for certain liquids and substances. They may even recreate the fire at the fire training school.
One of their most valuable employees is Grover, a “cute, furry, four-legged” Jack Russell terrier-Labrador-bloodhound cross.
The two-year-old dog spent eight weeks being trained to detect ignitable liquids, such as gasoline and paint fluid. Grover’s been on duty for only a year, but he’s done about 30 to 40 searches. He’s the third dog to work with Edmonton Fire Rescue.
“It’s a game to him. He doesn’t know he’s working,” said Steedsman, his handler.
As investigators collect evidence, they develop one or more hypotheses and then have to disprove them, said chief of fire investigations Daryl Brennan.
If they can’t narrow it down to one cause, the fire is ruled “undetermined,” which is what happened in the Roxy Theatre fire.
“It doesn’t matter how big (the fire) is, we’re still gathering the same information,” Brennan said. “You have to examine the material that’s left and among that material you have to kind of come up with a hypothesis — what could have happened here?”
At times, the cause is obvious. In 2012, while investigating a fire at the Shadified Salon and Spa, investigators found a lighter, jerry can and burnt glove, leads that helped identify the arsonist.
It’s not always black and white. To most people, the aftermath of a fire looks just like a pile of ash and debris. Investigators find answers.
“People always ask what we are looking for,” Bureau said. “I don’t know. I’ll know when I find it.”