Hopkinton Firefighters and Police Officers Graduate Basic Fire Investigation Course

HOPKINTON, MA — Police officers and firefighters from 57 communities, including Hopkinton, in the Commonwealth last month graduated from a fire investigation course.

State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey and Massachusetts Firefighting Academy Deputy Director Joseph Klucznik announced that the officers completed the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy’s six-day Basic Fire Investigation course. This rigorous professional training provides fire, and state and local police officers with the technical skills to accurately determine the origin and cause of fires in their jurisdictions and together, build solid, prosecutable cases, said the announcement.

“The team concept of fire investigation has been used successfully in Massachusetts for over 20 years and it starts with joint training,” Ostroskey said in a statement. “When police and fire are trained in the same techniques and procedures together, the consistency leads to accurate origin and cause determinations, and when arson is the cause, solid criminal cases. This course provides students with the most current techniques for determining the origin and cause of fires. They are exposed to the investigatory process as outlined in the National Fire Protection Association Standard 921: Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations.”

The six-day basic fire investigation course covers the concepts of witness interviewing, fire behavior, scene examination, fire scene documentation, and evidence collection. Students must pass a written exam. The program covers unintentional fires, intentionally set fires, automobile fires, fatal fires and wild land fires.

Of the 64 graduates were 39 firefighters, 21 local police and four state police officers.

Graduates represented the following 57 communities:

• Arlington Fire Department
• Westborough PoliceDepartment
• Beverly Fire Department
• Westfield Fire Department
• Boston Fire Department
• Woburn Fire Department
• Boston Police Department
• Woburn Police Department
• Braintree Fire Department
• Worcester Fire Department
• Bridgewater Fire Department
• Worcester Police Department
• Bridgewater Police Department
• Brockton Police Department
• Canton Fire Department
• Danvers Fire Department
• Department of Fire Services
• Dudley Fire Department
• Easton Fire & Rescue Department
• Easton Police Department
• Everett Fire Department
• Fall River Fire Department
• Fall River Police Department
• Gardner Fire Department
• Gardner Police Department
• Hingham Fire Department
• Holyoke Police Department
• Hopkinton Fire Department
• Hopkinton Police Department
• Hudson Fire Department
• Hudson Police Department
• Kingston Fire Department
• Kingston Police Department
• Lawrence Fire Department
• Lexington Police Department
• Longmeadow Fire Department
• Marlborough Fire Department
• Mass. State Police
• Methuen Fire Department
• Methuen Police Department
• New Bedford Fire Department
• Newton Fire Department
• Newton Police Department
• North Andover Fire Department
• North Andover Police Department
• Reading Fire Department
• Reading Police Department
• Saugus Fire Department
• Swampscott Fire Department
• Watertown Fire Department
• Watertown Police Department
• Webster Fire Department
• West Newbury Fire Department
• Westborough Fire Department

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