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11 October 2024
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Featured FRI Magazine article: How to go about arranging a wildfire investigation in your area by Rob Erasmus, Enviro Wildfire Services (FRI Vol 2 no 10)
It is important to undertake an investigation as soon as possible, albeit a preliminary one, sometimes even while the fire is still burning before important clues are destroyed
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Do not assume that all roadside fires are caused by cigarette butts
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An example where at least 3 cigarette butts landed in dry fine fuels but did not start a roadside fire.
Any items discovered near the origin MUST be left intact to be properly documented and collected by a qualified investigator. Failure to do so could render the evidence inadmissible in a court of law
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In cases of suspicious fires, first responders have an important role to play in identifying and protecting the general origin and not destroying fragile evidence with powerful water jets
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https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/fri_vol_2_no_10.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: How to go about arranging a wildfire investigation in your area written by Rob Erasmus, Enviro Wildfire Services (FRI Vol 2 no 10). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
How to go about arranging a wildfire investigation in your area
By Rob Erasmus, Enviro Wildfire Services
Despite the importance of reducing malicious wildfires in South Africa, a lack of time, funds, manpower and resources are the primary reasons why wildfire investigations are not undertaken more often. It would appear that guidance is perhaps the missing ingredient.
In our last article we suggested procedures to be taken to protect the origin when suspected wildfires are being lit in your area, as well as who to contact to undertake an investigation. In this article we take it a step further and include the ‘multi-agency task team’ concept, which is simply a grand term to describe different organisations working together to solve a series of malicious fires in an area.
So, you have reason to believe that someone or some group is maliciously setting fires in your area for whatever reason. The fact is that it is costing you time and money to put them out and might even have the potential to do serious harm or damage to life and property. In most cases the authorities sit back and claim to not have the resources, time or funds to investigate the situation and each organisation passes the buck claiming it is the responsibility of another agency.
The outcome? Nothing gets done and the perpetrator(s) continue with their game.
Here are some suggestions on how to go about having an investigation undertaken if you have good reason to believe that malicious fires are being set in your area:
1. Meet with your supervisors and provide them with facts and figures of the fires (dates, times, areas, circumstances, costs for suppression, etc). Explain the expected outcomes over the next six months if nothing is done.
2. Explore wildfire investigation options, including your local South African Police Service (SAPS) detective unit, district municipality fire department and the private sector.
3. Once a qualified wildfire investigator who is willing to assist has been located, meet with them to discuss possible agreements, rates, assistance and steps to be taken when a fire occurs.
4. When this has been achieved, arrange a meeting with senior representatives from the local fire department, SAPS detective branch, conservation organisation, fire protection association (FPA), Working on Fire (WoF) and any other organisation (farm watch groups, etc) to explain the concerns and plans.
5. Awareness and training programmes for first responders can then be arranged to teach such personnel how to identify and protect the general origin upon their arrival at the fire scene. Bear in mind that protecting the origin is a crucial part of the investigation.
6. Develop a wildfire database (this is very different from the usual fire records database) that will enable trends to be detected.
7. Where possible, arrange to have EVERY suspicious fire preliminary investigated as soon as possible.
8. Once suitable data is collected, a meeting is once again held with the various representatives. At this meeting a multi-agency task team is formed, consisting of representatives from agencies who are able to make a meaningful contribution to apprehending the suspect(s). The information collected at wildfires from here on should be regarded as confidential and should only be made known to the members of the task team.
9. Most communications from here on are done via email and telephone, with meetings held as and when necessary, such as to discuss new information or revised plans.
While this might sound very much FBI/CIA orientated, it is nothing more than a coordinated approach involving all agencies to apprehend malicious fire setters, ensuring that no one is left out of the loop and that petty politics are avoided.
While we have done our utmost to avoid using this series of articles as a marketing ploy, we are aware that the reason why the majority of fires are not investigated is because most agencies do not have the resources, time, manpower or funds to do so. We hope that most readers will agree with this.
In response to this, Enviro Wildfire Services, a registered nonprofit organisation based in the Western Cape, South Africa, is offering to undertake preliminary wildfire investigations at no charge, with certain terms and conditions such as use of the information and travelling costs. The reasoning is that with this offer more landowners and agencies will request and have preliminary investigations undertaken, which will serve numerous purposes, including the collecting of crucial information at an early stage (before it is damaged, destroyed or removed) and the determining of the actual cause of such fires.
The primary function of undertaking a preliminary investigation is not only to determine the origin and cause but also to document the general and specific origin, photograph and collect evidence and collect other important information such as weather and details of eye witnesses as soon as possible.
The findings will indicate whether the fire was indeed malicious or as a result of a negligent/accidental incident. Based on this, an educated recommendation can be made as to whether a formal investigation should be undertaken. The benefit of this process is that all the crucial data would have already been collected during the preliminary investigation, which will reduce the overall cost of the formal investigation by about 30 percent.
Much of South Africa has been playing catch-up regarding wildfire management and I would like to believe that good success is being achieved in many areas as a result of ongoing awareness campaigns, alien clearing projects, fuel reduction programmes, land owner compliance through FPAs, establishment of Working on Fire bases and firebreak management.
With these proactive measures in place and being expanded, it is hoped that managers will now consider taking steps to identify the true causes of fires and in so doing implement steps to prevent them from reoccurring.
In our final article in the next edition we will discuss training opportunities.
For more information about fire investigations, taking advantage of preliminary investigations at no charge, setting up and coordinating a multi-agency task team or arranging presentations for your staff, please contact Rob Erasmus at [email protected].
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: How to go about arranging a wildfire investigation in your area written by Rob Erasmus, Enviro Wildfire Services (FRI Vol 2 no 10). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
How to go about arranging a wildfire investigation in your area
By Rob Erasmus, Enviro Wildfire Services
Despite the importance of reducing malicious wildfires in South Africa, a lack of time, funds, manpower and resources are the primary reasons why wildfire investigations are not undertaken more often. It would appear that guidance is perhaps the missing ingredient.
In our last article we suggested procedures to be taken to protect the origin when suspected wildfires are being lit in your area, as well as who to contact to undertake an investigation. In this article we take it a step further and include the ‘multi-agency task team’ concept, which is simply a grand term to describe different organisations working together to solve a series of malicious fires in an area.
So, you have reason to believe that someone or some group is maliciously setting fires in your area for whatever reason. The fact is that it is costing you time and money to put them out and might even have the potential to do serious harm or damage to life and property. In most cases the authorities sit back and claim to not have the resources, time or funds to investigate the situation and each organisation passes the buck claiming it is the responsibility of another agency.
The outcome? Nothing gets done and the perpetrator(s) continue with their game.
Here are some suggestions on how to go about having an investigation undertaken if you have good reason to believe that malicious fires are being set in your area:
1. Meet with your supervisors and provide them with facts and figures of the fires (dates, times, areas, circumstances, costs for suppression, etc). Explain the expected outcomes over the next six months if nothing is done.
2. Explore wildfire investigation options, including your local South African Police Service (SAPS) detective unit, district municipality fire department and the private sector.
3. Once a qualified wildfire investigator who is willing to assist has been located, meet with them to discuss possible agreements, rates, assistance and steps to be taken when a fire occurs.
4. When this has been achieved, arrange a meeting with senior representatives from the local fire department, SAPS detective branch, conservation organisation, fire protection association (FPA), Working on Fire (WoF) and any other organisation (farm watch groups, etc) to explain the concerns and plans.
5. Awareness and training programmes for first responders can then be arranged to teach such personnel how to identify and protect the general origin upon their arrival at the fire scene. Bear in mind that protecting the origin is a crucial part of the investigation.
6. Develop a wildfire database (this is very different from the usual fire records database) that will enable trends to be detected.
7. Where possible, arrange to have EVERY suspicious fire preliminary investigated as soon as possible.
8. Once suitable data is collected, a meeting is once again held with the various representatives. At this meeting a multi-agency task team is formed, consisting of representatives from agencies who are able to make a meaningful contribution to apprehending the suspect(s). The information collected at wildfires from here on should be regarded as confidential and should only be made known to the members of the task team.
9. Most communications from here on are done via email and telephone, with meetings held as and when necessary, such as to discuss new information or revised plans.
While this might sound very much FBI/CIA orientated, it is nothing more than a coordinated approach involving all agencies to apprehend malicious fire setters, ensuring that no one is left out of the loop and that petty politics are avoided.
While we have done our utmost to avoid using this series of articles as a marketing ploy, we are aware that the reason why the majority of fires are not investigated is because most agencies do not have the resources, time, manpower or funds to do so. We hope that most readers will agree with this.
In response to this, Enviro Wildfire Services, a registered nonprofit organisation based in the Western Cape, South Africa, is offering to undertake preliminary wildfire investigations at no charge, with certain terms and conditions such as use of the information and travelling costs. The reasoning is that with this offer more landowners and agencies will request and have preliminary investigations undertaken, which will serve numerous purposes, including the collecting of crucial information at an early stage (before it is damaged, destroyed or removed) and the determining of the actual cause of such fires.
The primary function of undertaking a preliminary investigation is not only to determine the origin and cause but also to document the general and specific origin, photograph and collect evidence and collect other important information such as weather and details of eye witnesses as soon as possible.
The findings will indicate whether the fire was indeed malicious or as a result of a negligent/accidental incident. Based on this, an educated recommendation can be made as to whether a formal investigation should be undertaken. The benefit of this process is that all the crucial data would have already been collected during the preliminary investigation, which will reduce the overall cost of the formal investigation by about 30 percent.
Much of South Africa has been playing catch-up regarding wildfire management and I would like to believe that good success is being achieved in many areas as a result of ongoing awareness campaigns, alien clearing projects, fuel reduction programmes, land owner compliance through FPAs, establishment of Working on Fire bases and firebreak management.
With these proactive measures in place and being expanded, it is hoped that managers will now consider taking steps to identify the true causes of fires and in so doing implement steps to prevent them from reoccurring.
In our final article in the next edition we will discuss training opportunities.
For more information about fire investigations, taking advantage of preliminary investigations at no charge, setting up and coordinating a multi-agency task team or arranging presentations for your staff, please contact Rob Erasmus at [email protected].