Guide to Wildland Fire Origin and Cause Determination

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group provides national leadership to enable interoperable wildland fire operations among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners. Primary objectives include: Establish national interagency wildland fire operations standards. Recognize that the decision to adopt standards is made independently by the NWCG members and communicated through their respective directives systems; Establish wildland fire position standards, qualifications requirements, and performance support capabilities (e.g. training courses, job aids) that enable implementation of NWCG standards; Support the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy goals: to restore and maintain resilient landscapes; create fire adapted communities; and respond to wildfires safely and effectively; Establish information technology (IT) capability requirements for wildland fire; and Ensure that all NWCG activities contribute to safe, effective, and coordinated national interagency wildland fire operations. The "Guide to Wildland Fire Origin and Cause Determination" is designed for use in the field as a guide for wildland fire investigators. Accurate wildland fire origin and cause determination is an essential first step in a successful fire investigation. Proper investigative procedures which occur during initial attack can more accurately pinpoint fire causes and preserve valuable evidence that might be destroyed by suppression activities. If a fire is human-caused, the protective measures described in the guide can preserve evidence that may lead to effective and fair administrative, civil, or criminal actions. The investigation should start at the time a fire is reported or discovered. First responders play an important role in protecting evidence, so it is important for the wildland fire investigator to help train first responders to identify and protect the General Origin Area of the fire. Wildland fire investigators should impress upon firefighters, law enforcement officers and other first responders that the preliminary protection of the General origin area and any associated evidence on any wildfire is their responsibility, and emphasize to them that they are the most important link in the subsequent origin and cause determination. Not only is it important for the first responders to recognize the need for an accurate origin and cause determination, it is important that they understand how their actions, both during and following suppression, can enable a qualified wildland fire investigator to accurately determine the origin and cause.