Firefighters Take On High-Tech Foes

Seattle Fire Department arson investigators may use an old-fashioned crossbow to help catch the arsonist who used high-tech fuels to start seven commercial arsons in the state, including the fire that destroyed the Blackstock Lumber Co. and killed a Seattle firefighter.

Department investigators believe such fuels have been used to torch the Blackstock building and several others in the state since 1982.

While firefighters pour water on the flames the next time they fight a large, suspicious fire, an investigator could loft an arrow through the fire's smoke. The arrow would carry a specially designed high-technology Teflon filter to collect smoke particles. The particles would then be analyzed at the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory at the University of California at Davis.

Scientists at the Crocker lab are now devising the special filter, said Capt. Bill Hepburn, head of the Seattle arson-squad team.

``This kind of thing has never been done before, anywhere,'' said Hepburn, whose arson unit is investigating the Blackstock fire, in which Lt. Matthew Johnson died. His death has been classified as murder.

``The people at Crocker are excited about doing this because their regular work has never involved investigating crime,'' he said.

Last week, Hepburn and two investigators delivered to the nuclear lab a collection of possible evidence from the Blackstock fire and two other Seattle blazes they believe are linked to Blackstock.

``There is a real good chance they will find something some day next week or so,'' he said. ``It is possible they can give us a real good determination of what the fuel was at those three fires.''

Learning what fuel was used to start those blazes could significantly help investigators identify a suspect because there are only a few sources where such high-tech fuels can be found, he said.

Investigators believe the Blackstock fire was started by a professional arsonist using the same rocket-fuel chemicals believed to have been used to start two other fires in Seattle and four other large arsons at commercial sites in the state since 1982. One of those fires killed a Spokane firefighter.

Those fires are:

-- The $3 million Tri-State Distributors fire in Spokane in September 1982. Firefighter Paul Hendresreich died when the roof collapsed under him.

-- The $1 million Artificial Ice Co. fire in Yakima in September 1983.

-- The $4.5 million Carpet Exchange fire, Seattle, January 1984.

-- The Landmark Building fire, Bellingham, March 24, 1984. An insurance company settled a claim on the building for $300,000.

-- The $1.3 million Hansen Fruit Co. warehouse fire, Yakima, May 1984.

-- The Maritime Shipyard fire, Seattle, February 1989, no loss figure disclosed.

-- The Blackstock Lumber Co. fire, Seattle, September 1989, loss figure not disclosed.

Another fruit-warehouse fire in the Yakima area may be part of the series, according to Mike Meyers, Yakima Fire Department arson investigator. Battled by a rural fire department the same day as the Artificial Ice Co. blaze, the fire destroyed the warehouse, and the debris was bulldozed from the scene before a detailed investigation could be started.

To get a handle on what happens when these high-tech fuels are burned, the Seattle and Puyallup fire departments conducted a test burn in a vacant store building in Puyallup last March.

Some 400 pounds of chemicals in three containers was ignited as part of the test. Hepburn declined to identify the chemicals used but said he believes they are close to the mixture used by the arsonist.

In several of the arsons, the fuels used are believed to have burned at nearly 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit, cutting through cast iron and making steel drip like melted cheese.

The chemicals ``contain their own oxidizer so the fire does not need oxygen,'' Hepburn said.

Thirty sensors wired to computers were used in the vacant store to make a second-by-second record of the fire. The sensors, worth an estimated $5,000, were destroyed by the fire.

Hepburn noted that three minutes after the chemicals were ignited, the amount of oxygen in the building was less than 1 percent. (Air is about 21 percent oxygen.)

``Anyone in there at that point would have died,'' he said.

Like the arsons, the test fire burned at remarkably high temperatures.

``We know that the material we used there burned at least 4,000 degrees,'' Hepburn said. ``That was just above floor level, and that it was much hotter right under the roof.''

Temperature sensors kept track of the heat until it reached 1,400 degrees and the sensors failed. One sensor was placed on the floor 80 feet from one bucket of chemicals and covered with a protective jacket of the type worn by firefighters. Less than three minutes after the chemicals were lit, the outer layer of the jacket was completely burned away.

``That was on the floor, the coolest part of the area,'' Hepburn said. ``Survival of a firefighter in those conditions is out of the question.''

The intense heat increased the air pressure in the building to the point where the store's front door was blown open three minutes after the chemicals were ignited. That sent a wall of flame 5 feet high roaring 30 feet across the parking lot.

From the test, ``we have learned enough to recognize one of these fires quickly,'' Hepburn said. ``We have learned not to put any firefighters on the roof because it is going to burn through rapidly and fall in.

``We have learned what to look for in the investigation and a great deal about evidence gathering,'' he said.

In addition, the Seattle fire investigators have talked to other fire departments around Puget Sound and alerted them to what to look for should they encounter a fire similar to the unsolved arsons. A training video for nationwide distribution is in the works.

``We don't know if this is happening just in Washington. Maybe there are other fires like this around the country that no one recognized as one of these,'' Hepburn said.