Why members of Portland’s unique Fire Investigation Unit carry two badges

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – With more than 100 years of history in the Rose City, Portland Fire & Rescue’s dual badged Fire Investigation Unit works to solve fire-related crimes with both fire and police training. They are the only such unit in Oregon.

“We actually have what is a police department that functions as a police department, specifically tasked by city charter to investigate the crimes of arson and explosive related crimes,” Lt. Jason Andersen, the unit’s chief investigator, said.

Andersen said a spot on the team is considered a specialty assignment. Once a lieutenant or inspector is selected to be a part, they have to get trained up at the basic police academy like any other officer in Oregon.

“It’s 16 weeks, 640 hours of training at the police academy,” Andersen said. “Upon their graduation of the police academy, they have to complete a field training program that takes approximately between 6 to 9 months. And that includes getting their police certification tasks all completed like a normal police officer does, but also the specialty training of being a fire investigator.”

The nine member unit always has someone at the station, 24/7 365 days a year. If a fire is suspicious or responders think it was a crime, they call the FIU. Then if the incident is a felony level crime, the investigation begins.

“Our unit is pretty self-sufficient,” Andersen said. “For the most part, we’re going to be the ones that are going to identify a lot of that evidence. We’re going to collect the potential DNA evidence. We’re going to collect the fire debris evidence. We have our accelerant detection K-9 that helps out with that.”

That K-9 is part of what sets this unit apart. Until a year ago, Andersen’s partner K-9 Kiki was the only accelerant detection K-9 in the Pacific Northwest. He said Kiki can run in ahead of investigators and quickly identify the cause of the fire, like after a fire at a commercial building two years ago.

“I was standing at the doorway and I took her off her leash and center in, and we didn’t know how the fire started at that point,” Andersen said. “And my K9 walked in, and within about 7 or 8 seconds, she immediately came off of her search, ran across the entire floor of the building, and gave me an alert. In an area in the center of this room that we moved a piece of sheetrock. There was a molotov cocktail sitting right there.”

Andersen said Kiki saved them at least a couple of hours on that case alone. It’s training and skill across the unit that helps them close cases.

“When we sit in grand jury, we sit in that courtroom and we can talk about how this works, even when we’re working with the district attorney’s office,” Anderson said. “And even when we’re talking with the suspects, it allows us to just get to a place that most agencies can’t do. And so without us being here, I fear that these crimes wouldn’t be investigated.”

For now, Anderson said it does not look like any nearby jurisdictions will get a FIU of their own. But he said there is still an opportunity for his unit to help.

“We don’t need to expand anywhere,” he said. “That’s not our goal. But we do realize that our investigators are very highly trained. “They’re good at what they do. And as a result of that, we want to benefit others around us and help elevate their skill level and their technical expertise through what we have the fortunate ability to do, which is have a high call volume.”

Andersen said if it were not for the unit’s relationship with the Portland Police Bureau, they could not do the work they do. He said PPB dedicates a full time detective to work with their office, and they will even use Portland Police facilities for their interrogations.