NORTHERN CALIFORNIA FIRE PREVENTION OFFICER’S

FIRE INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE

April 22, 205 – San Francisco 

In Attendance:

James DiGrazia- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Doug Bridwell -Napa City Fire Department

Vern Canon -Nevada County Consolidated Fire District

General Discussion:

We learned that Ron Branigan with the Woodland Fire Department was appointed as the second Co-Chair for the committee.

We spent the majority of the meeting reviewing the goals for the committee.

Work is progressing with developing a system to allow fire investigators to rapidly and easily share information with fire investigators throughout the State. We have had some preliminary discussions with the Los Area Angeles Fire Marshals group regarding the use of their Arson Net list serve. Membership to the Arson Net list serve would be limited to public safety fire investigators, crime lab representatives, District Attorney Offices including their investigators, along with State and Federal agencies involved in fire investigation.

We will also be contacting Tom Fee, CCAI Business Manager, along with the CCAI liaison person for Nor Cal to begin developing a working relationship. To ensure effective communication between the two groups, we will look into the possibility of the Co-Chairs attending the CCAI Board Meetings in addition to their annual training conferences.

It was pointed out that the nationwide Arson Awareness Week occurs each May and that the committee should work closely with the Public Education Committee along with allied fire investigation groups for the observance of this annual event next year.

We also briefly met with representatives of the Fire Service Education Committee and will work on determining the training needs of Nor Cal as it relates to fire investigation and hosting the needed classes. We will also explore the possibility of co-hosting classes with CCAI and local arson task forces.

Respectfully Submitted,

Vern Canon

Co-Chair Fire Investigation Committee

Nor-Cal FPO’s