Fire Investigations and Their Role in Prevention

In an effort to improve service to the community, it is common for fire departments to conduct an operational critique after the incident. This is an excellent tool to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our response and suppression performance. We can do the same with our fire prevention efforts by linking our fire investigations to our fire prevention program.

Many fire departments investigate fires simply because they are legally bound to do so. Most of the nationally recognized fire codes give legal authority to the fire chief to investigate fires. In some cases the responsibility of the fire investigation may be another municipal or district entity such as the police or county sheriff department. One of the obvious desired outcomes of the investigation is to determine the cause of the fire. These results must be utilized to assist the fire prevention division in the development of a holistic fire prevention program.

Fire prevention bureaus focus their efforts on inspection, education and enforcement. However, the actual fire problem in the community is not always linked to these efforts through data obtained during local fire investigations. Not using fire investigation data for prevention is not just a local issue. As we know, the fire service does not usually act in a proactive manner. We tend to continually react after the incident and not before.