ATF NATIONAL RESPONSE TEAM ACTIVATED TO GUAM
First-ever Deployment to the U.S. Pacific Territory

TUMON, Guam - The National Response Team from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) along with special agents from the ATF office in Guam have entered the investigation of a large commercial fire that occurred Aug. 17 at the Unique Plaza building at the request of the Guam Fire Department.

Special Agent in Charge Kelvin N. Crenshaw of the ATF Seattle Field Division, which has jurisdiction for this U.S. Pacific territory, said there were two businesses in the Unique Plaza building: Western Gun Club and Club Aja, which are located in the Tumon tourist district. Preliminary estimates of damages exceed $1 million.

In 1978, ATF developed the National Response Team (NRT) to assist federal, state, and local investigators in meeting the challenges faced at the scenes of significant arson and explosives incidents. The NRT consists of four teams organized geographically to cover the United States. Each team can respond within 24 hours to assist state and local law enforcement and fire service personnel in onsite investigations.

In addition to investigating hundreds of large fire scenes, the NRT has also been activated to scenes such as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing, and the Sept. 11, 2001, Pentagon crash site, as well as explosions at explosives and ammunition manufacturing plants, legal fireworks factories, and illegal explosive device manufacturing operations.

Each team is composed of veteran special agents who have post-blast and fire origin-and-cause expertise; forensic chemists; explosives enforcement officers; fire protection engineers; accelerant detection canines; explosives detection canines; and intelligence, computer forensic and audit support. The teams work alongside state and local officers in reconstructing the scene, identifying the seat of the blast or origin of the fire, conducting interviews, and sifting through debris to obtain evidence related to the bombing/arson.

The deployment is the first for an NRT to Guam and the second to Oceania; a team was sent to Yap in Micronesia in March 2001. This is the 13th NRT activation in fiscal year 2005 and the 601st since the program's inception in 1978. Other agencies involved in the investigation are the Guam Police and Fire Departments.

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