The state plans to launch a comprehensive training and educational campaign for arson and fire investigators in January modeled after a program in Tarrant County, the state's top fire official said.
The local program, run by the Tarrant County fire marshal's office, requires 24 to 30 hours of continuing education a year for members of a task force that handles fire cases in the region.The goal is to avoid the type of "junk science" that became the subject of scrutiny after the prosecution and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, said Texas Fire Marshal Chris Connealy.Willingham, an unemployed Corsicana mechanic, was convicted of setting a 1991 house fire that killed his three young daughters. He was executed in 2004 and had repeatedly maintained his innocence."Tarrant County has an excellent system," Connealy said. "We're going to model that and tweak it."Over the past three decades, Tarrant County has amassed a 50-member Arson Task Force of certified fire and arson experts who respond to emergencies in Tarrant, Hood and Parker counties.Connealy, appointed by the state's insurance commissioner in May, has moved quickly to improve fire science education.For example, he announced that his office would adopt more than a dozen recommendations in a comprehensive report issued by the Texas Forensic Science Commission that concluded that the fire science used to convict Willingham was based on outdated methods.Connealy hopes that a growing number of jurisdictions will model their programs after the Arson Task Force coordinated by Tarrant County Fire Marshal Randy Renois.The program, initiated in 1977 and formalized in 2000, requires task force members to undergo continuing education each year."We were kind of trendsetters to a certain extent," Renois said.But the training is essential to good investigations, he said."You have to get dirty and you have to work," Renois said. "Anybody in this business who doesn't want to work doesn't have to be in it."That was also Connealy's position when he addressed the state's top forensic panel in October. He outlined an aggressive schedule of quarterly training and educational programs for fire investigators."I've met with city managers and mayors and other groups and said, 'You've got exposure here. If you're not training your fire investigators and following best practices ... you probably ought not to be in that business.'"While he cannot require continued training, he hopes that jurisdictions will do that on their own.The push for statewide training and education represents an about-face for the state fire marshal's office, which had defended its position in the Willingham case. Then-Deputy Fire Marshal Manuel Vasquez testified early in the case that the incident was a "crime of arson." The state fire marshal's office affirmed that position in 2010.The commission began its inquiry into the Willingham case in December 2008 after receiving a petition from the Innocence Project.Craig Beyler, a Baltimore fire expert who was hired to review the Willingham arson inquiry, concluded that investigators relied on outmoded techniques.He raised the possibility that the fire was accidental. At least eight other experts had similar findings.The nine-member commission includes two people from Fort Worth -- Assistant District Attorney Richard Alpert and Arthur Eisenberg of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. Former members include defense attorney Lance Evans and Tarrant County Chief Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani.Yamil Berard, 817-390-7705
Fire science training
The state fire marshal's office is expected to launch educational opportunities for fire investigators in January in Houston and Plano. For more information, call the office at 512-305-7900. E-mail: Fire.Marshal@tdi.state.tx.us
For more information about the Tarrant County Arson Task Force, go to bitly.com/VYDhzv
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