Pre-season briefings with Police Arson & Explosives Squad

In partnership with the Victoria Police Arson & Explosives Squad, the CFA Fire Investigation Section presented at the annual Victoria Police pre-season briefings at 11 locations across the state.

Pre-season briefings with Police Arson & Explosives Squad

Fire Scene Preservation

The pre-season briefings were established by the Victoria Police Arson & Explosives Squad when the Arson & Explosives Liaison Officer roles in police districts were created.

As part of the strong inter-agency working relationship that exists between the Arson & Explosives Squad and the CFA Fire Investigation Section, the briefing sessions are jointly presented.

Detectives from the Victoria Police Arson & Explosives Squad gave an overview of Operation SAFEGUARD – Victoria Police Prevention, Detection and Emergency Management Fire Strategy 2019-2020.

They also discussed the role of Arson & Explosives Liaison Officers in regions and what they do at a fire scene, how to preserve a scene, and carrying out a forensic examination.

CFA district fire investigation coordinators, fire investigation team leaders and fire investigators attended these briefings. The team gave an overview on:

  • the seasonal bushfire outlook for Victoria
  • fire scene safety for multi-agency fire investigation teams
  • vegetation fire causation trends analysis from the 2018-2019 fire season
  • lesson learned from the fire investigations conducted during the 2018-2019 fire season
  • intelligence gathering to help investigations into the origin and cause of fires.

The annual pre-season briefings are always well received and are a great opportunity for CFA fire investigators and Victoria Police detectives to share up-to-date information to improve investigation techniques in the specialist field of fire and arson investigation.

The briefings are also an opportunity to further enhance the partnerships and networks that already exist between CFA and Victoria Police from a fire investigation perspective at state, regional, district and local levels.

/CFA News Release. View in full here.