SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — Fire investigators in Spokane Valley are working to determine the causes of multiple fires that broke out over the past week, including several arson cases along the Spokane River.
Spokane Valley Fire Department put out over a dozen fires along a section near the Spokane River over the weekend, all of which were determined to be arson.
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While firefighters worked to extinguish the blazes, fire investigators simultaneously began their work to determine how the fires started and who may have started them.
Fire investigator Ben Reece said investigators track a variety of factors when there’s unusual fire activity in a specific area.
“If there’s a certain area in Spokane Valley that is having more fires, our fire marshal will have us patrol the area at certain times. We track time of day and what day of the week that fire most likely happened,” he said.
Reece said investigators can quickly rule out certain causes based on location and environmental factors.
“In this area, we don’t have any power lines, so we can quickly rule that out,” Reece said. “It’s not a high-trafficked area, so we can rule out a train possibly throwing a spark or a car, or a chain dragging from a vehicle.”
The investigation process begins before investigators even arrive at the scene. They examine weather conditions and various other indicators to build their case.
Reece said fire investigators operate under a standard that requires only 51% certainty of their hypothesis to determine what most likely caused a fire.
At the scene, investigators look for specific burn patterns and evidence that can reveal the fire’s origin and progression.
“We know this fire moved from this area over here and it protected this side of the rocks over here,” Reece said. “We have a lot of heavy charring on these logs here, which indicates the fire was burning intensely in this area.”
Reece, who worked as a firefighter for years before becoming an investigator, said his previous experience helps him recognize certain patterns in how fires burn.
“Even certain characteristics of the fire show that there was hairspray used that was later found, which has a very specific burn pattern when someone uses an aerosol with fire,” Reece said.
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