Fire Investigations

Under the direction of the Fire Marshal's Office, the Fire Investigations (Arson) program is responsible to the citizens of the Albuquerque community by providing professional arson investigations and subsequent prosecution of people suspected of the crime of arson. This section also determines the cause and origin of all major fires in its jurisdiction; this includes all fires where death or injury occur.

The six investigators are fire fighters who are hold law enforcement certification through the State of New Mexico Department of Public Safety. The investigators prepare criminal complaints for submission to the District Attorney's office.

Laboratory analysis is an integral part of arson investigation. The Albuquerque Fire Department employs a full-time chemist in the Arson Accelerant Detection Laboratory. The laboratory functions in a full time capacity and accepts samples state-wide.

The results of fire debris analysis are used to support the investigator's conclusions regarding cause and origin of a fire. The department's laboratory uses nationally accepted standards for evidence analysis and is currently the only functioning laboratory for accellerant detection in the state of New Mexico. With the recent addition of a new gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer, we are fast becoming one of the most progressive, state-of-the-art, laboratories for fire debris analysis in the country.