§2235 Investigation Authorities

Summary

The Administrator can send a team to investigate a major fire. The team can include safety experts, fire engineers, code and standards specialists, researchers, and training experts. They must work with the right federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial authorities, including any federal agency that is allowed to investigate the fire. The investigation must check the cause and origin already identified and look at wider issues like building rules and codes, who lived or worked there, building features, how smoke and fire moved, and the costs from injuries and deaths. When the investigation ends, the Administrator will either publish a report for the authorities or work with another agency’s report. If a report would hurt a possible or ongoing criminal case, the Administrator does not have to publish it. Public reports should give recommendations about similar buildings at risk, better firefighting response, safer civilian practices, costs and benefits of added safety features, and ways to reduce the fire’s causes. The Administrator may also investigate unusual fires that caused fewer losses, as long as doing so won’t harm a criminal probe. This does not change other agencies’ powers, and the Administrator cannot use these investigations to bring enforcement or criminal charges. “Major fire” is defined by rules the Administrator will issue.