The Fire Investigation division of the Wayland Fire Department is responsible for determining the cause and origin of fires that occur in Wayland.
The two member team of Captain Andrew Holland, Lieutenant James Gemelli have undergone over 100 hours of training in basic and advanced fire investigation thru the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services and the State Fire Marshal’s office. The training covers various areas of fire investigation such as cause and origin, interviews, forensic photography, and evidence collection and preservation.
Our fire investigators also work as part of the Central Middlesex Fire Investigation Team. The team is comprised of trained fire investigators with the towns of Acton, Concord, Lincoln, Maynard, Sudbury, Wayland, and Weston. The investigators work in conjunction with Massachusetts State Police fire investigators assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s office.
One of the benefits of a complete fire investigation is that of product safety. When it is determined that a consumer product’s failure such as a coffee maker, caused a fire, that product is entered into a state and national database. Many times a product is found to have a defect that causes a fire. The manufacturer is then able to make changes to the product during assembly or thru a safety recall.
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