SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif- Firefighters constantly work to figure out what caused a fire and there are new techniques to help investigators. Fire investigators from Humboldt to Oceanside came to the central coast to learn new tricks of the trade. Fire investigators got hands on experience, learning fire patterns and how to recognize them.
Some tests include an old enemy to firefighters, cigarettes. "The new cigarettes are supposed to go out, they have bans in them, so we are going to do some testing there," said Jamie Novak with the St. Paul Fire Department. Just a couple weeks ago, a fire on Tank Farm Road and Broad could have been the result of arson. San Luis Obispo City Fire said its training like this that helps with these kind of investigations.
"To be able to say that they actually witnessed it and saw it duplicated, rather then I read it in a book or I saw it in a power point, to see it first hand gives them more credibility when they go to court," said Novak. About 150 fire investigators were in San Luis Obispo training at the California Conference of Arson Investigators.
