Community Involvement & Programs

FIST

The Saginaw Fire Department is attempting to utilize all available resources to their greatest advantage and the ‘FIST’ unit demonstrates how effective combining resources can be. The arson rate in the city of Saginaw is nearing 31%. The necessity to reduce this community threat while maintaining a reasonable operating budget for investigative services and fire cause determination resulted in the creation of the Fire Investigative Services Team, FIST. This team consists of members of the Saginaw Fire Department, Saginaw Police Department, Michigan State Police Fire Marshal’s Division, and supported by the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) U.S. Department of Justice. This combined team approach insures availability of personnel in all areas of fire cause determination such as, fire scene and debris analysis, on-scene witness and suspect interviews, photographic and scene sketch detail, direct contact with county, state, and federal prosecutor(s), and courtroom evidence presentation by seasoned fire investigative professionals. These and the many other aspects of carrying a criminal case from beginning to end have resulted in a high arrest and conviction rate of perpetrators of arson in the city of Saginaw.  Fondly called “Orca” by firefighters, it is a welcome addition to our fleet of apparatus.