As the 6th largest Fire Authority in the UK, Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service can now pride itself on paving the future in tackling deliberate fire setting and the development and support of Fire Investigation.
Did you know that 70% of all fires in Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service last year were attributed to deliberate ignition!
Within the Community Safety Prevention Department is a team of three Station Managers dedicated to Arson Reduction and Fire Investigation.
Whilst it is recognised that the individual ‘Areas’ are responsible for targeting and running arson reduction campaigns, it is the team’s role to assist and link in with partners at strategic level, offering specialist support. This usually involves liasing with partners operating under the Crime and Disorder Act, inclusive of other agencies who are responsible for restorative justice i.e. the Probation and Youth Offending Teams.
As an example, team members have already been instrumental in many areas of arson reduction and include:
• Making contact with secondary schools so that Group Community Safety Officers can deliver ‘Key Stage 3 Arson Education’.
• Educating Police Community Safety Officers (PCSO’s) in ‘arson/criminal damage profiling’, inclusive of which council departments can be contacted to arrange disposal/removal of combustible waste i.e. Car Clear Schemes, and
• The organising of CCTV in known hotspots where the Service has encountered high volumes of secondary fires.
Equally, situations have arisen where due to the sensitivity and urgency of an arson related ‘Police Operation’, then the Arson Reduction Team has been the initial point of contact with the Police. This has allowed decisions and specialist support to be offered using the expertise and knowledge of the Support Team and as such, joint operations have been recognised as best practice and instrumental in successful criminal convictions.
Due to the geographical size of Devon and Somerset, each member of the Team has been assigned 2 Service Areas:
1. Station Manager Keith Pascoe - Devon - West and South
2. Station Manager Bill Harvison - Devon - North and East
3. Station Manager Andy Justice - Somerset - East and West.
Each of the Officers will have been in contact with your Area and Group Managers to offer support. This includes supporting local campaigns and sharing good practice across the organisation and suggesting appropriate arson reduction initiatives appropriate to your Station needs. However, by all means please feel free to contact us where your station may be encountering the start of an arson related trend, which you feel needs a timely response.
From Left to Right - Andy Justice, Bill Harvison, Doug Smith & Keith Pascoe.
Additional Skills
The additional skills offered by the Team members include:
- Advanced Fire Investigation.
- Firework and Explosion Investigation, and
- Courtroom skills and presentation.
Other informal training includes experience working alongside Crime Scene Investigators and Forensic Scientists.
Fire Investigation Of Accidental Causes
Whilst primarily involved in arson related fires, the Team has already built up an excellent rapport with the insurance agencies. This allows Fire Investigators the opportunity to jointly investigate and discuss fire scenes with experienced independent forensic scientists along with utilisation of their test facilities to confirm or disprove fire causes. Many of you will appreciate that the extent of our ‘services’ investigative resources are limited by funds and time. Therefore such working has allowed us to access independent investigations where insurance companies have determined the financial amount they are prepared to spend to fully determine cause!
Contact with the Fire Investigation Support Team
Contact with station personnel will be predominantly through our attendance at incidents and liaison with ‘Group’ based Fire Investigators. However this does not prevent Crew and Watch Managers requesting either our attendance at incidents or the provision of telephone advice; no matter what hour of the night, there will always be one of us on duty! Over the next 2 years, it is our intention to visit all stations to meet personnel and deliver Fire Investigation and Scene Preservation refresher training.
Whilst there are three of us dedicated to Arson Reduction and Fire Investigation, it would be remiss of us not to mention the fourth member of the Fire Investigation Support Team, Station Manager Doug Smith who is a specialist in Fire Engineering and as such brings a unique technical skill to the team.