It can be 'hot, dirty work' says Sault's new Ontario Fire Marshal investigator

Firefighting, apart from its dangerous nature, is a science in itself.

However, tracing the cause of a fire after the fact is a separate, complex scientific endeavour, undertaken in Ontario by investigators from the Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM).

The OFM is called in to investigate the cause, origin and circumstances of any fire or explosion, that in the opinion of the Fire Marshal, caused a fire, explosion, loss of life or damage to property.

Jim Campbell, a Brantford native, has lived in the Sault for seven years, having become a Sault-based OFM fire investigator in May.

“Every fire’s different,” Campbell told SooToday, adding fire investigators have a team of experts in laboratories to assist them in poring over evidence gathered from fire scenes, whether fires are accidental or the result of arson.

Some investigations take weeks, even months to complete before determining the cause of a fire or explosion.

“Once we get to a scene, to define the area of origin of a fire we start by eliminating (what did not cause a fire). You basically start from the outside of a house, trailer, car, a factory or whatever it might be. Did the fire start on the outside and work in, or did it start from the inside out? That’s your first question.”

Starting with an area where there is little to no damage, a fire investigator works his/her way to various rooms within a structure.

“You need to know a lot about fire dynamics and fire behaviour, (various flammable items such as) furniture, wall finishing, carpeting or floor covering, types of ventilation, windows, doors, were they open or were they closed. There are little things you look for to determine (the cause). Eventually you can get to a room of origin and define the fire down to a certain area.”

If that sounds complicated enough, Campbell said “it’s not always quite that simple.”

Investigators, he said, sometimes have to excavate several rooms by shovelling debris out by hand, uncovering it from items such as TVs, coffee tables, couches and/or armchairs.

“Then, you get a much better picture. From there we’re identifying fuels and other potential fire sources like a faulty electrical system, smoking, an ignitable liquid in the case of an arson... there are different theories as to how the fire happened, then you go about ruling them out until only one cause can remain.”

Samples often have to be taken and sent to Ontario's Centre of Forensic Sciences (CFS), or engineers have to be consulted. 

“A coffee maker (for example, taken from the scene by investigators as possibly faulty and leading to a blaze) may have to be examined by engineers, so that takes time to get those examinations done. We’re also looking for things like ‘did the smoke detectors work, how did the fire spread out, are there Ontario Fire Code violations, did a landlord not fix something correctly?'”

“There are a lot of things we look at.”

OFM fire investigators are well equipped with absolutely essential head to toe personal protective equipment (PPE) suits, investigators resembling lab technicians (or even astronauts).

“It’s pretty nasty stuff, the chemicals that come off a fire scene. You’re almost crawling around, we’ll bring buckets to shovel debris into, take them outside to put through sifters.”

“My most recent fire was challenging because of the sheer size of it,” Campbell said, emphasizing he is one member of a large professional team that investigates any fire.

“It was a large industrial building, 60,000 square feet, a conglomeration of smaller buildings. It was almost a city block. Pretty much the whole thing had burnt. The roof had collapsed and when we got there, there were still hot spots. The fire department was still on scene after a few days. We had to get heavy equipment in, we had to get the hydro shut off, the water shut off, there were hazardous materials we had to take care of before we could even begin to get in to take a look at the origin and cause of that fire.”

Hot, dirty work.

“It can be. It’s not always, but it’s a huge part of the job. Yeah, it can be pretty dirty, and hot in the summertime,” he said.

Investigation of a fire, from the beginning to the point where a written report is submitted, Campbell said, “can take around 45 days. There might be some that are quicker. If there’s a post mortem that needs to be done, that has to be accounted for in our reporting. That takes time.”

Campbell is the only OFM fire investigator based in the Sault, and, like all other investigators in the province, takes his turn to be available, 24/7, for one week of every month in which he could suddenly be called away to investigate fires elsewhere in Ontario.

“My truck is packed with equipment for seven days. During those seven days you could be called at any time, day or night, to respond. You could be going anywhere. A couple of weeks ago I missed my daughter’s birthday dinner. I had to go to a fire in Mississauga. There’s a fire, so you’re going.”

However, Campbell said he enjoys the opportunity to travel across the province, meet people and help by applying his skills. 

Investigators are accommodated, when out of town, in hotels (COVID having complicated that process to an extent), or in some remote communities, at a police station or a room to rent (paid for by the province).

Campbell emphasized that homeowners must have a working fire alarm, to not go back into a burning house to retrieve valuables, and that modern furniture, couches in particular, go up in flames much faster than those our parents or grandparents had.

Before he became an OFM fire investigator, Campbell earned a Fish and Wildlife Technology diploma at Fleming College’s Lindsay, Ontario campus (Fleming College named in honour of Sir Sandford Fleming, a 19th century Scottish-Canadian engineer and inventor).

After graduation, he went to work for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (now known as the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry).

He stayed with that department for 20 years before transferring to the OFM, which lies within the Ministry of the Solicitor General’s bailiwick.

One might think it was a big career switch for Campbell to go from working with natural resources to fire investigation, but it actually wasn’t.

“I was with enforcement at the MNRF. In that role I received a lot of investigative training. I took a lot of courses from Ontario Police College in statement taking, intelligence. The MNRF does forest fire investigations, so there were some overlaps, some transferable skills when I came over to OFM.”

Campbell began his training with OFM in February, learning new administrative and fire science skills. 

Much of that training was received at a regional OFM centre in Midhurst, Ont., Campbell starting his new duties in May.

His OFM fire investigation duties have, so far, taken him to Mississauga, Toronto and Dryden.

“I was ready for a change. I wanted to try something else out. It’s still within the Ontario Public Service and it’s still investigative. That’s my interest...it’s right up my alley.”

Campbell said he has already investigated one fire involving a fatality.

“It’s sombre. You think ‘there was a person here.’ This person had a family, and they want answers. What better motivation to do your job as well as you can. Hopefully you might find something that might prevent something similar. It’s never an easy thing.”     

In the same way police officers, firefighters and paramedics have consoled those who have suffered loss, OFM fire investigators can do the same, Campbell said.

“Helping somebody who can use that help when they've just experienced something traumatizing, like their house just burned down or lost a loved one, if you can help them out just by doing your job, even if all it involves is listening to them, that’s a nice thing.”