I will try to go over what was covered. The first thing to talk about is the new standard being developed. This is a standard for the operation of fire investigation units, both public and private. Before you get defensive it is important to understand where NFPA is going with this standard. The standard will not be setting step by step procedures as to what you need to conduct investigations. The NFPA is recognizing the diversity in the types of units that will be conducting investigations. What this standard will be doing on the public sector is to give a general outline as to what is involved in you having the ability to conduct investigations. Those in the public sector can use this standard when justifying their existence. An example that was given was a large investigation unit that only had a budget of $3000 for training. The standard will go into the type of training that is needed. If one looks at this and compares it to the training required by the IAAI and NAFI to maintain a certification you will see this will probably go side by side. The standard will not tell you what policies and procedures your unit needs to have but only that you need written policies and procedures. It will give guidance as to the development of policies and procedures. What will be important is to watch when the public comment section is open for this document. There you will be able to learn more about the document and make suggestions.

The next was 1033. There is some major changes in this document. If you know 1033, you know about the 16 topics of knowledge that exist. Well they are gone. Most have been added into the document with two exceptions. These are fire modeling and thermometry. The other they worked into the JPRs just like the existing requirements. They are adding some charts that better explain the JPRs and how you achieve them through your normal training.

The last is 921. They only when over an overview of this document. Where they did touch on some of the changes the remainder of the classes will address each of the chapters where changes have been made. There was on exception. This was the deletion of the chapter of cause classification. From what I understand, classification will be left up to the NIFRS system. The classification of fires has been a problem area for this document since I was on the committee back in the 90’s. The problem is separating the cause of a fire with the classification. They are not one in the same. You are dealing with a person’s intentions. Determining a persons intentions is not a science based process. Where the gathering classification information is important to some, it is not the basic reason for the existence of 921. 921 is there to assist in determining the cause of a fire. Yes, there is information in 921 to assist the investigator in developing a motive and I understand this is outside of the scope of determining the cause but the main purpose of this document is to assist in the establishment of a cause for the fire or explosion.

By attending these classes you will not only learn what was changed but the reasoning behind the changes. There was a big discussion as to what was taking place and why in the wildland fire chapter. What it showed me is that the committee was not shooting from the hip in making changes but was willing to pull back from making changes until they could get a quality product for the document. It demonstrated the concern that NFPA has on producing a quality product over just putting something new in the document.

Hope this gives you an idea as to what is taking place. As I said, I am looking forward to attending the remaining classes. With them doing each of the chapters using this method of instruction I think that both the NFPA and the IAAI has really hit on something.

Jim Mazerat
Forensic Investigations Group