Copyright 2006 THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL
The Dallas Morning News
Determining the cause of a fire is a little easier for Farmers Branch fire investigators these days now that all the equipment they need is at their fingertips.
Until recently, fire investigators had to lug their equipment around in the back of their pickups or sport utility vehicles.
Some of it may be in one vehicle, some in another.
“We used to put them in tubs, which shifted around,” Fire Marshal Timothy DeDear said.
Now, with the conversion of an old ambulance into a fire investigation unit, all their tools and paperwork are readily accessible.
“We have everything organized, know where everything is. It’s a perfect tool,” Marshal DeDear said of the new unit, unveiled last month as the Fire Department celebrated its 25th anniversary. “It stores a lot more equipment.
“In the past, we’d have a certain amount of equipment in each vehicle,” he said. “Sometimes you couldn’t swing getting every investigator out to a location, and you wouldn’t have all the equipment you needed.”
The unit already has been used to help Carrollton firefighters investigate a blaze, and it was used in the investigation of a multialarm fire at a Farmers Branch hotel last week.
The ambulance was a reserve vehicle that was no longer needed. The department had bought a new ambulance, and the older one was about to go to auction.
For less than $1,000, the department made the conversion, taking out the stretcher and the brackets that held it in place, building a tabletop and adding a lamp inside.
The ambulance’s multiple compartments, outside and inside, proved ideal places for a battery-operated saw, shovels, brooms, rakes and other tools. And there was space for a new generator and lights to help investigators work at night. There was no room for that in their smaller vehicles.
External compartments provide the ideal location to store containers with hazardous materials - samples of suspected fire accelerants taken from the fire scene.
But most important, Marshal DeDear says, the unit gives investigators a sheltered place to meet and do paperwork, and to interview victims, witnesses and suspects.
“We would have to sit and discuss things in the elements, where it could be raining or cold or extremely hot,” he said. “You have privacy in this unit, where you have to be careful what you say out in the open.”
Carrollton fire investigators have a pickup with compartments rigged to carry their equipment.
“But you can’t get inside and stand up and have the privacy,” the fire marshal said.
The new unit also helps investigators assist residents who whose homes have burned.
Personal care items are stored inside the compartments. Investigators can grab a bag and put first-aid kits, shaving kits, diapers, toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo, laundry detergent and other items together for the victims.
“When you lose everything, and all you have are the clothes on your back, this will help get you through a couple days,” the fire marshal said.