SAN FRANCISCO – Approximately 25 members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ or ATF’s National Response Team arrived on scene today at the 3800 block of San Pablo and 40th Street in Emeryville, California, to help investigate a five-alarm fire that occurred the morning of May 13.
“ATF’s role is investigative in nature,” said Special Agent in Charge Jill Snyder. “Our focus is to provide our expertise on fire scene analysis to the Alameda County Fire Department for their investigation. ATF approaches these scenes without any preconceptions about what may have happened, and we allow the evidence to guide us to a conclusion. We could reach one of three conclusions as the cause of the fire. Those conclusions being accidental, incendiary or undetermined.”
The NRT is also working closely with the Emeryville Police Department, Alameda County Fire Investigation Task Force and Oakland Fire Department.
ATF is the only federal agency with the expertise and resources to investigate fire scenes. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is the federal expert in this field, and the NRT exists to support federal, state and local investigators with large-scale and complex fire and explosive incidents.
The NRT is composed of veteran special agents who include certified fire investigators, certified explosives specialists, fire protection engineers, chemists, forensic mappers and other highly specialized and experienced fire investigators. More information on NRT can be found at https://www.atf.gov/explosives/national-response-team.
This is the 812th NRT activation since inception of the program and 16th callout for this fiscal year.
Anyone with any information about this fire should contact ATF at 1-888-ATF-FIRE or by visiting www.reportit.com or through the mobile “reportit” app, available both on Google Play and the Apple App Store. All calls will be kept confidential.
