In a previous post someone referred to something I think is more prevelant than what we realize in our profession. That is pressure of varying kinds being applied to some investigator's for them to 'make a determination' and call a fire either this or that.

A couple of years back while I was still in the public sector there was an underlying pressure being applied to field investigators. The cause of this pressure was from several members of the senior staff in HQ not being thrilled with so many undetermined fire causes. It was their position that with much new training & education over the last few years the investigation staff wasn't doing a very good job. Many of the more senior investigator's of the agency tried to teach and explain why an investigator must base his/her determination on what he/she can scientifically prove. This internal battle continued until my departure in 2005 and I'm told still continues.

Utimately, during the annual arson investigation seminar in March, anyway I think its March, I was present leaning against a rear wall listening to the opening remarks when I heard the then state fire marshal announce to those attending he was "really very concerned about the number of undetermined fire calls occurring across this state and he was certain the investigators attending the seminar could do a much better job than that". There was an investigator standing close to me who leaned over and said "doesn't that idiot think maybe it just could be that we're doing a better job?" Unfortunately, no he didn't.

There is now a new state fire marshal sitting in that office, but sadly the information I hear is that there is still a "push" to call fires. I also know from past experiences that many city fire investigator's experience the same type of pressure. So, I believe this problem to be more prevelant than it is thought to be.

I also don't neccesarily think this is only on the side of the public sector. I'm presently involved with many interested parties conducting an investigation where certain parties are trying to persuade the investigation to go a certain way. We stubbornly maintain that we must follow accepted guidelines (921). Nevertheless, some of the participating parties continue to push for some type of an abbreviated investigation.

I bring this up because I beleive it to be an important issue that we must all continually address. And, we also need to educate those in our profession and those closely associated to it that 'undetermined' is one of the determinant fire causes and is a perfectly sound fire determination and not an indication the investigation was somehow lacking.