Fire Cops

“Arson is one of the toughest crimes to solve because the evidence is generally destroyed.”

- Tim Crass, 10-year arson investigator

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Call them “fire cops”. They’re Los Angeles Fire Department’s elite arson unit that conducts about 1,000 investigations a year to determine whether a fire was intentionally set.

It’s dirty, gritty work that involves examining the charred remains of buildings and brush in search of clues to how a fire started. After they determine an arson occurred, the investigators try to figure out who set the fire and why. They have a 95% conviction rate for arrests.

Each investigator knows well how fires destroy, having first worked as a firefighter for a minimum of five years. This expertise helps them find specific burn patterns associated with a fast-moving fire, such as the kind set with a flammable liquid.

In very rare instances, this expertise is used to actually set fires, as in the case of former Glendale Fire Department arson investigator John Leonard Orr, who is serving a 30-year federal prison term after being convicted in 1992 and 1993 on six counts of arson. He is facing the death penalty in a trial for four deaths that resulted from a fire he intentionally set in South Pasadena in 1984.

Last month, Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigators were called to the scene of a massive fire that destroyed the Leaves restaurant in Canoga Park. The cause: arson, and the search for suspects continues.

THE INVESTIGATION

1) Incident commander, battalion chief or fire captain determines need for arson investigators, who automatically respond to large fires or if there is a fatality or serious injury.

2) Information on fire conveyed by incident commander, who passes along firefighters’ observations.

3) Investigators inspect building or burned area looking for burn patterns indicating fire was set with an accelerant such as gasoline, the most commonly used.

4) Working from the least-burned to the most-damaged area, investigators take notes, collect evidence, take photos and draw sketches of the burn patterns and building layout.

5) Accelerant-detecting dog may be called in to pinpoint suspicious areas. Samples of carpeting or other materials later analyzed by a lab.

6) Investigators interview witnesses, occupants, firefighters and bypassers.

7) Arson cases with identified suspects handed over to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.

INVESTIGATORS

Although some major cities have as many as 250 arson investigators, the Los Angeles Fire Department has just 18. All have received training in arson investigation, weapons, safety and tactical procedures and undergo a one-year probation period.

CANINE ASSISTANCE

The amount of time arson investigators spend at a scene has been cut dramatically since Flower was assigned to the Los Angeles Fire Department in May, 1995. Formerly a guide dog, this female black Labrador retriever has been trained to find various accelerants in the remains of a fire. Nationwide, there are 44 such dogs but only two in California.

ARSON MOTIVES

* Spite / revenge (most common)

* Fraud

* Crime cover

* Pyromania

* Civil disturbance

* Vanity (arsonist who reports a fire in order to be a hero)

* Juvenile (the curious firesetter)

BY THE NUMBERS

1996-1997

Total fires: 14,460

Arson: 1,425

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By The Numbers

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Year Total fires Total damage Arson Arrests ‘90-’91 20,723 $164.8 mil 5,053 237 ‘91-’92* 20,763 $562.8 mil 6,139 239 ‘92-’93 18,961 $109.3 mil 5,172 253 ‘93-’94** 19,450 $141 mil 4,977 270 ‘94-’95 15,945 $127.2 mil 3,695 164 ‘95-’96 15,450 $72 mil 3,580 163 ‘96-’97 14,460 $73.7 mil 3,460 211

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* 868 incidents and $461 million in damage due to 1992 riots.

** 160 fires due to 1994 Northridge earthquake.

To provide information on any fire, call the arson unit at (213) 485-6095.

Sources: Los Angeles Fire Department, state Fire Marshal’s Office; researched by STEPHANIE STASSEL / Los Angeles Times