After a fire, the owners of the property that burned – be it a
house, garage, vehicle or business – are left to ask themselves
many questions.

Is everyone OK? How did this happen? How much is left? Where
will we go? What now?

It is one person’s job to immediately start answering those
questions.

The two full-time state police fire marshals in the troop that
covers the seven-county area that Bradford falls in talked with The
Era recently about their duties and status of arson investigations
so far this year.

Trooper Mick McCracken of the Clearfield-based state police said
that an officer interested in becoming a fire marshal has to take
courses in both basic and advanced arson, as well as electrical
courses and building construction through the National Fire Academy
in Maryland. He said getting the initial, minimum requirements can
be done in a year to 18 months. After that, a fire marshal trainee
must spend six months “shadowing” an active fire marshal on his
investigations, and cover a fire in each of several categories –
vehicular, structure, commercial, etc.

Once the six-month apprenticeship is completed, the person can
test to receive his state-level recognition, making him an official
CFI or certified fire investigator.

McCracken said he and the other fire marshals in the troop –
Charles Gross at Punxsutawney, Cpl. Martin Henneman at Kane, Brian
Reitz at Tionesta, Rodney Hodgkiss at Clarion, Greg Agosti at
Ridgway, Dale Chase at Punxsutawney and Cpl. Tom Josephson at
Clearfield – cover Clearfield, Elk, McKean, Jefferson, Clarion,
Forest and northern Indiana counties. He and Gross are the two
full-time fire marshals, and the others are alternates, he
explained.

McCracken has been a CFI since 1995, he said. He went on to
explain that a fire marshal is called in to investigate after a
municipal fire chief is unable to classify the fire as accidental.
If it is either undetermined or deemed suspicious by the fire
chief, it is state law to contact a fire marshal, he said.

Different types of fires are investigated differently only in
that different outside agencies cooperate with the fire marshal’s
investigation. For example, for a fire at a camp in the woods, the
fire marshal would contact the Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources; in the event of a wild fire, sometimes
Occupational Safety and Health Administration or other state
agencies are called in.

The most common causes for fire in the local area, McCracken
said, are electrical malfunction, careless smoking and cooking
accidents.

A typical fire investigation, he said, can take anywhere from an
hour to several months.

“My policy has always been to work hand in hand with local
(fire) departments,” McCracken said. Local police departments are
notified right away in the case of arson, he said. “I invite them
to be there and see what I am seeing to explain why it is
arson.”

K-9 officers are used for two reasons in fire investigation,
McCracken said. When it is obvious that an arson suspect used an
accelerant, the dog can confirm it, and when it is uncertain, the
K-9 can eliminate the possibility that an accelerant was used.

Once a fire has been ruled arson, the investigation is turned
over primarily to the local police department, provided the
department is big enough to have an investigation unit, according
to fire marshal Charles Gross.

Gross has been a full-time fire marshal for six years, he said,
and also still doubles as a criminal investigator for the
Pennsylvania State Police.

“They (the police) may request a follow up” from the fire
marshal, Gross said, or the fire marshal is asked to assist. “We
will do that and help out where we can, but it is primarily their
jurisdiction.”

Even with the limited number of investigators for a seven-county
area, the local fire marshals have to investigate each and every
fire they are called out to.

“Whatever happens, we have to handle it,” McCracken said, adding
he has investigated three fires in one day when needed. “Those are
long days … 18 to 20-hour days.”

All that hard work does pay off, though, as both McCracken and
Gross said they figure the cause and origin of about 75 to 80
percent of the fires they investigate are determined with
certainty.