Investigating fires can be complex process

When someone loses a home or has property damaged by fire, they often want a quick answer to what went wrong. But the investigation process takes time, and sometimes the cause is never determined.

“If you ever watched an episode of ‘CSI’ on TV, they wrap up every story in 48 minutes, and they never show them doing paperwork. And so a lot of people come to expect that same kind of speed when it comes to a fire investigation — and that’s simply not the case,” said Cindy Kettering, deputy fire marshal for Bend Fire and Rescue.

Investigators must sift through the ashes to piece together the story.

“What I would do first is do what’s called a 360, so I’m going to walk completely around the fire scene,” Kettering said.

She will take pictures, documenting everything, and look for burn patterns.

There are many time-consuming factors to the investigation, including collecting evidence, sifting through the burned material and interviewing witnesses.

Kettering said oftentimes, the structures aren’t safe to enter right away, so they have to wait longer for engineers to come in and make sure they’re structurally sound enough to proceed.

“A fire investigation is a slow, very methodical process, in which to determine the origin and cause of a fire, we have to rule everything else out,” she said.

One recent puzzle was solved, as investigators determined a fuel leak from a motorcycle parked in a garage ignited an Oct. 23 fire at a home on Southeast Piper Drive, causing an estimated $350,000 in losses.

But Kettering said unless they can determine a fire’s cause with absolute certainty, it must be ruled undetermined.