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West Metro Fire Investigators say wildfire investigations are complex and time-consuming, but can be worth the effort to find results.
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — West Metro Fire Rescue investigators said lightning is the likely cause of a Tuesday night fire that burned a small plot of open space land near Ken Caryl Avenue and C-470.
Multiple videos show lightning hitting the area shortly before firefighters responded to extinguish the fire.
“We had a pretty good idea how this one started,” said investigator Matt Araki. “But it’s not always this easy.”
Araki said the overwhelming majority of the fires they investigate turn out to be human-caused, and finding the place where the fire started is key to the investigation.
“Generally, I like to consider everything arson until I rule it out,” said Araki. “It may have human-caused, but it may not have been intentional, so we have to find these things and start ruling things out.”
Araki isn’t involved in the Quarry Fire or Alexander Mountain Fire investigation, but offered some insight to 9NEWS into what goes into these investigations.
He said they can take months or even years to complete, especially if finding the origin proves to be difficult.
“If it’s something like a match or something like that, can you imagine what it takes to actually find something like that?” he said. “It’s the proverbial needle in a haystack.”
Araki said people are often surprised to learn how much evidence can be found at an origin point even following a fire.
“A cigarette butt, believe it or not, will generally survive,” he said. “And if it is in our area of origin, we will probably tell people ‘yeah we think this was human involvement,’ whether it was intentional or not, we don’t know quite yet.”
He said even once they find evidence, the legal process of filing paperwork and the ensuing criminal investigation can take time too.
“Patience is a virtue,” he said. “None of this happens overnight.”
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