24/7 On-Call Fire Investigators in Santa Maria Finally Close a Critical Gap
Jarrod Zinn
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The Santa Maria Fire Department has joined surrounding communities with a 24-hour staff of on-call fire investigators.
This fills a critical gap found in recent assessments.
Investigators have deemed what was once Lassen’s Natural Foods store on Broadway as unsafe, and it will soon be scheduled for demolition.
For many years here in Santa Maria, the firefighters with their boots on the ground, the first responders, have often had to reach out to surrounding communities for investigative support.
Now, we have our own 24-hour team.
As of June 28th, there is an on-call staff of skilled fire investigators working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, covering all of Santa Maria.
We had a community risk assessment analysis along with some other in-house analysis that determined that the there was a gap for having a qualified fire investigator available at all times,” says Santa Maria’s fire marshal Jim Austin.
Prior to that, scenes of incidents often cooled for hours before an investigator was able to arrive on scene, adding challenges to the already grueling jobs of first responders.
So we get to see the impacts of the fire as it’s occurring, which helps with our investigation as well,” says Francisco Santos, one of Santa Maria’s fire investigators. “If we’re on call and there’s a tone for a structure fire and it’s confirmed the structure fire, we’re automatically going to be dispatched.”
Recent incidents such as the devastation of Lassen’s Natural Foods store on Broadway, as well as suspicious carport fires and dumpster fires within a specific vicinity of the city since then remain unsolved, leaving locals still feeling edgy.
“No matter what happens, like I said, we are here to bolster our public and also help out our guys on the engines,” says John Mata, another of Santa Maria’s fire inspectors.
A shift rotation helps the investigators avoid burnout, as they must often lose sleep and be away from their families.
“It has boosted the confidence in the firefighter because they know the programs in place,” says Marshal Austin.
While the investigators have no significant updates on the mentioned cases at this time, they are continuing those investigations, actively monitoring people of interest and tracking any new activities.
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