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NEWS

Arson busters in town

David Letheby, left, with the Alice Springs arson investigators Damien Buckley, Neil Rilatt, Darren Whatley, SteveRussell, Rick Flemming and Dave Pettit

THE six volunteerarson investigatorsw h o r e c e n t l ytrained in Alice

Springs haven’t had thechance to use their skills yet,but our firefighters are gladthey’re around.

District officer for the Al-ice Springs Fire Depart-ment David Letheby andanother Alice Springs fire-fighter trained the six menso that they can investigatedeliberately-lit fires.

‘‘They were trained in atwo-day course,’’ officerLetheby said.

‘‘These volunteers aretrained to investigate thesefires when they occur and, ifthey believe it’s suspicious,they get the permanent fireinvestigator to thoroughlystudy the site.

‘‘These guys will be thefirst investigators on thesite and will work with thefull-time firefighters.

‘‘Hopefully this will dis-rupt the serial arsonistswhen they see people outthere doing a job.

‘‘We’re also going to putposters saying ‘if you seesomething, know some-

thing, then say something’up on trees around the areasthat have been burnt.’’

This is the first time vol-

unteer fire investigatorshave been used in theNorthern Territory.

‘ ‘The training went

through all the physical in-dicators of bushfire arsonand what to look for,’’ hesaid. ‘‘Looking at how a fire

has gone through a patchof country, these guys lookfor leaf freeze and how grassis laid over and they even

call the weather bureau tofind out where the windswere that day.’’

The men did a day oftheory before taking to thebush to find out the originpoints of controlled burns.

However, the volunteersended up being able to in-vestigate a ‘‘real’’ fire, acampfire in Larapinta thathad been left burning.

Officer Letheby said thevolunteers could find thesource of a fire to withinabout two metres.

‘‘Sometimes we can evenfind a match,’’ he said.

‘‘We narrow it down andthen identify the point oforigin and from then golooking for tyre tracks andinterview witnesses.

‘‘We’re pretty confidentthat having an extra coupleof people available to helpwith investigation, we’re go-ing to make a difference.’’

He said there was a defi-nite intent to train moreinvestigators.

‘‘Often they’re at thescene before the perman-ents arrive and can seewhat’s going on.

‘‘They’re our eyes and earsand they start building apattern of what’s been hap-pening in their particularpatch,’’ he said.

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