Campbell County hiring part-time marshal to help investigate fires

In the wake of an assistant fire marshal’s retirement and an increasing number of fire investigations, Campbell County’s Board of Supervisors recently approved a budget amendment to transfer funds for the hiring of a part-time assistant fire marshal.

Fire Marshal Rodney Lawson said over the past few years, the requests for investigations into fires, suspicious or routine, have nearly doubled.

Lawson, however, said that’s not an indication that fires have increased, or even that suspicious fires have increased.

“It’s kind of deceiving,” Lawson said. “The number of fires have not increased, but the requests for us to investigate have.”

Lawson, as well as County Administrator David Laurrell, attributed the increase in investigations to better interaction between the fire marshal’s office, the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office and local fire departments.

Laurrell said though the fire marshal’s office has historically performed fire investigations, over the past three years, the sheriff’s office has deferred to the fire marshal on investigations.

“I don’t think anything’s really changed,” Laurrell said. “I think it’s just a better understanding and utilization of the fire marshal’s office.”

Lawson said the part-time position is, for now, just a safeguard to assure that investigators will be available when a closer inspection is needed.

Lawson said he’s very pleased with Campbell County’s current success rate in fire investigations, mentioning that over the past year, only one or two cases are still outstanding investigations.

Considering his office investigated about 50 fires, he called the success rate “unprecedented.”

“That’s kind of unusual,” he said, “especially in a rural (area), with volunteer fire departments.”

That, too, he attributed to good communication and interaction between area agencies.

Laurrell called the increase in requests “just an evolutionary issue.”

The part-time position, he said, “won’t be something that’s permanent. This is just kind of temporary fill-in to help handle this load.”