ATF Certified Fire Investigators (CFI)
Purpose
The ATF Certified Fire Investigator (CFI) is a highly trained special agent who provides technical support, analysis and assistance to ATF and to its state and local partners in the areas of fire origin and cause determination and arson investigation. ATF CFIs are a field division’s primary resource in fire- and arson-related matters.
Authority
ATF’s basic investigative jurisdiction in arson is delineated in 18 United States Code, Chapter 40, Section 844 (Title XI of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, as amended by the Anti-Arson Act of 1982); Section 846 and 26 United States Code, Chapter 53 (Title II of the Gun Control Act of 1968, as amended).
Mission
The goal of the CFI is to support ATF’s work to resolve and prevent fire-related crimes. CFIs are ATF’s primary resource in fire-related matters, investigating violent crimes of arson and arson-for-profit crimes, conducting fire scene examinations, making origin and cause determinations, providing expert testimony, assisting other special agents and prosecutors with investigations, and conducting training for ATF agents and other federal, state and local fire investigators. The CFI program raises the field of fire investigation to a more sophisticated level throughout the fire investigative community through example, teaching, research and training.
CFIs are graduates of a two-year, two-phase program designed to train them in disciplines such as fire origin and cause determination, fire dynamics, fire modeling, building construction, electricity and fire causation, health and safety and computer-aided schematic drawing. The training program provides the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities through training, education and experience that enable the agents to obtain the proper credentials for testifying as an expert witness in the field of fire origin and cause.
ATF currently maintains 100 CFIs based in 45 states and 81 cities providing support to the entire United States, its territories and other countries. In 2009, ATF’s CFIs participated in 817 fire investigations.
In addition to its CFIs, ATF contributes the expertise of its U.S. Bomb Data Center, explosives enforcement officers, National Response Team, three forensic science laboratories and its Fire Research Laboratory to fire and arson investigations.
For more information about CFIs, go to www.atf.gov.
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