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ReStore fire investigation underway

Details on blaze’s origin could be released today

News Photo by Julie Riddle Michigan State Police Fire Investigator Sgt. Dan Drew photographs the remains of Habitat for Humanity Restore in Alpena Wednesday as part of his official investigation into the cause of Sunday’s fire that destroyed the building.

ALPENA — While no overt signs of foul play were found Wednesday during an inspection at the site of Sunday’s fire that destroyed the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Alpena, an official determination of the fire’s cause has not yet been released, according to Capt. Andy Marceu of the Alpena Fire Department.

In the case of fires that involve suspicious circumstances, injury, or death — or are of unusual size, such as that at the ReStore building — the department calls in the assistance of Michigan State Police Fire Investigator, Sgt. Dan Drew.

Drew spent Wednesday morning at the scene, searching for the where and the why of the fire.

A fire investigator’s job is to ascertain the origin of a fire — where it started — and its cause. Amid the fire’s wreckage on Wednesday, Drew defined an increasingly smaller circle as he examined the burned building, pinpointing as closely as possible the location where the first spark flared.

Fire origins are sometimes easy to determine, as in a small fire over the past weekend on the back porch of an Alpena residence, where clear fire marks on a wall pointed to a trash can where some ashes had been deposited.

In addition to physical evidence, timelines and witness accounts can also be crucial in discovering where and how a fire started, Drew said.

On the morning of the ReStore fire, witnesses who spoke to police — and police officers themselves, arriving at work at the Alpena Public Safety Building across the street — confirmed there was no sign of smoke a few minutes before 6 a.m., Marceau said.

An on-duty officer noticed a smoky smell shortly after 6, but didn’t see smoke anywhere nearby.

The first call to 911 came at 6:13 a.m., and officers were on scene only a minute later and were able to pinpoint where the fire first emerged from the building.

Marceau was on scene at 6:19 a.m.

As a fire investigator, his early arrival gave a boost to his ability to, later, investigate the fire’s origins. Instead of relying on witness accounts, he was able to gather information and evidence first-hand, even as firefighters were battling the blaze.

A certified fire investigator, Marceau has worked on about 25 fires during his tenure in Alpena.

The fire’s origin was determined at the time by Marceau to be in the rear of the building, a determination confirmed by Drew on Wednesday.

Fires can be started in myriad ways. Electrical problems are a common culprit, but blazes can also begin because of lightning, rodents, even a wayward bird roosting on a fuse.

The number-one rule in fire investigation is to keep an open mind, Drew said. His job is to not make assumptions, but to gather facts that lead to a definite conclusion.

Investigators can’t always find the “why” of a fire.

“I wish,” Drew said.

In the especially rural areas that are part of his 18-county region, Drew encounters fires where there is no hope of finding out what happened. Where there is no full-time fire department, as there is in Alpena, volunteer firefighters often have to go from their homes to the fire station to pick up fire trucks before going to a fire, arriving too late to save a structure or establish a timeline of what happened.

In about 60% of the nearly 250 fires Drew has investigated in four years, the fire’s cause has been declared undetermined.

There is a difference, Drew said, between undetermined and unknown.

“Undetermined means there is more than one possiblity,” Drew said. “The public shouldn’t think we don’t know what started the fire.”

Many times, investigators have a strong theory or set of theories about what happened, based on their studies. But, Drew emphasized, an official determination of what started a fire will only be made if the investigators can be certain beyond a doubt.

Clark’s Coin Laundry in Alpena, which suffered substantial fire loss in March, was declared of undetermined origin, Marceau said. He and other investigators had not been able to rule out two stoves and an electrical panel as a starting point, but from there could not make an official statement of cause.

The stoves and panel were removed from the building by an insurance inspector, who, as far as Marceau knows, has not made a determination as to the fire’s cause.

Fire inspectors’ work intermingles with that of insurance inspectors, to whom the scene is released once it is deemed not suspicious. When possible, Drew said, he defers to the insurance company to hire an electrical engineer, trying to save taxpayer dollars by not using such services at the community’s expense unless necessary, while still using the data provided by the insurance company as an investigation tool.

If, however, a fire looks suspicious upon inspection, “we do what we need to do,” Drew said.

MSP has at its disposal multiple tools to learn about fire scenes, including accelerant canine teams who can sniff out firestarters and technology offering an eye in the sky.

An MSP drone, grounded Wednesday because of wet weather, will be used today to capture aerial photographs of the fire debris, providing measurements of the building and assisting investigators in mapping out the scene, Drew said.

Every fire has one of four causes, Alpena Fire Chief Bill Forbush said: accidental, natural, incendiary — that is, intentionally ignited — or undetermined.

Fires deemed possible cases of arson are forwarded to local law enforcement for further investigation.

If a fire’s origin is labeled as undetermined, law enforcement can still pursue an arson investigation, drawing information from surveillance footage, witness testimony, and other evidence.

Marceau, Sgt. Bill Gohl, of the Alpena Police Department, and Capt. Mike Manchester, of the Alpena Fire Department, all are certified as fire investigators. Of about 150 fire departments he works with, Alpena Fire is one of only six or seven with trained fire investigators on staff, Drew said.

Several officers from MSP-Alpena post, the Alcona County Sheriff’s Office, and the Alpena Township Fire Department were invited to be on-hand Wednesday as Drew and Marceau inspected the property, the charred building offering a training ground for uniformed officers in a community where large-scale commercial fires are not a common occurrence.

An official determination about the ReStore fire’s origin is scheduled to be released today. Wednesday’s investigation revealed nothing overly suspicious, Drew said. The investigators are awaiting information from Habitat for Humanity’s insurance company before making a final determination.

“At the end of the day, it’s what we can prove,” Drew said.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.

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