It helps to understand that arson arrest and conviction rates average less than 10 percent nationally and 26 percent here in Ohio. It's crime solving that combines detective work and science.
Early in the morning, fire crews on the scene of a vacant home up in flames at Blum and Hawley call for an arson investigator. Deputy Chief Phil Cervantes sends Dale Pelz, one of three men in the Toledo Fire Department's arson investigation unit. "You usually do a 360 on the exterior. As we do it, we're taking photographs. And then we'll talk to fire crews here on the scene," says Pelz.
First responders report what triggered their suspicions. In this case, Battalion Chief Christine Davis explains, "The front door was barricaded with some couches and a garbage can, which made our access to the fire more difficult."
Investigators canvas the neighborhood, but nobody reports seeing or hearing anything suspicious. "These guys do a tremendous job with what they got...bare bones minimum," says Cervantes.
Glen Frames is the newest member of the arson investigation unit. "When we respond to a fire, it's laying out a story," he says. Investigators collect buckets of evidence - carpet, furniture, and wood samples - ready to be shipped to the State Fire Marshal's forensic crime lab for analysis, located just outside of Columbus.
Tim Spradlin is chief of investigations at the State Fire Marshal's Office, which helps prove arson. "Arson is probably the simplest form of terrorism," he says. "When there is a wave of arson fires, like you had in Toledo last summer, people who have vacant houses next door aren't sleeping at night. They're afraid for their safety. The importance of finding who did that is just critical."
Chad Wissinger is the chief of the forensic lab. He describes the investigative process. "We stick all of the fire debris in an oven," he says. "It heats up the ignitable liquids in the fire debris and evaporates onto that carbon strip."
Wissinger tests burned carpet, wood, gas cans, even body parts. The carbon strip then gets put it in a machine called a gaschromatographie mass spectrometer, or GCMS for short. "What this does is it identifies liquids like ignitable liquids, things that can be used to accelerate a fire," explains Wissinger.
The lab also examines fingerprints. "If we can find a fingerprint, it's just as good as DNA," says Wissinger. Most of the debris, including gas cans, beer bottles, CDs, pop cans, even once a wooden cross, is put in a super glue chamber which turns fingerprints into a white color. "We can either dust it with fingerprint powder after that or apply a florescent dye which really helps it stand out," says Wissinger.
During an average week, the lab gets about 25 cases from all across the state. Within the next month, the crime lab expects to get even more tools to help solve arson crimes. They plan to get some video and audio equipment that will help them break down surveillance video and other evidence.
In Toledo, the arson unit is working to acquire new tools as well. "We're in the process now of working with different agencies, both public and private, to get some of the equipment we think is going to help us tremendously in our investigations," says Deputy Chief Cervantes.
New technology is helping catch arsonists, but convicting them is another story. "Arson, as a rule, is pretty difficult to get a conviction on, short of having an eye witness who can put somebody at the place," says Cervantes.
At the vacant house fire on Blum, Investigator Pelz is asked what are the chances of catching a suspect. His reply is an unfortunate reality. "Not that great," he says.
