SAFR

Investigation Reports

After a fire or a serious accident, SAFR writes the investigation report: the case file on what happened and what the cause was. It is the one report type the fire service files, and it is also where an arson case starts before it ever reaches law enforcement.

What makes it different

An investigation is about the event, not about a person. That shapes everything about it:

• No charges. SAFR does not fine or jail anyone. The charges section is not shown.
• No subject required. You can file one on a fire with no known cause and no suspect at all.
• One file, not one per person. The other report types split into one report per suspect; an investigation stays a single file even when several people are involved. Splitting it would leave you with half-files about the same fire, none of them holding the whole picture.
• It is the only type SAFR can write. The report menu on an incident offers you Investigation and nothing else, and the type cannot be switched afterwards.
• And, by default, the only one SAFR can read. Arrest reports, citations, warnings and NTAs do not appear in your Reports list or in a person's file while you are signed on as SAFR.

Starting one

1. Open the incident — the structure fire, the vehicle fire, the accident.
2. Tick any persons already attached to the call, if there are any. You can leave this empty.
3. Open the report button and pick Investigation.

The report's title is a copy — prefilled from the incident, yours to change, and not rewritten if someone renames the call later. The operational log stays live: you are reading the incident as it stands right now, including entries added after you started the file. An update from the scene reaches the investigation without anyone redoing the paperwork.

If the call is linked to other incidents, the persons attached to those come along too. An investigation starts broad; narrowing it down is your job, in the file.

Filling it in

Title

Name the file after the event, not after a person: "Structure fire — 12 Innocence Blvd", "Vehicle fire — Route 68". It is prefilled from the incident's title and you can change it. The title is what the file is found by later — in search, in the LEO database, and on the printed document.

Narrative

This is the body of the investigation, and it is a thread: cause and origin, burn patterns, what the first-in crew saw, what was ruled out. Each entry carries the callsign of whoever wrote it, so a file worked by an investigator and an engine officer shows who observed what, and when.

Write it as findings, not as a summary. Someone will read this file to decide whether a fire was set deliberately.

Persons of interest

Attach people when you have them. On an investigation they are persons of interest, not suspects — you are recording who was present or connected, not charging anyone. Attaching someone here is what lets law enforcement act on the file later.

Everyone attached carries a role: suspect, victim, witness or other involved. Only the suspect role can ever carry charges, and an investigation carries none — so on this type the role is purely how the person is recorded. Use it honestly anyway: it travels into whatever arrest report comes out of this file, and it is what the printed sheet shows.

Nobody involved in an investigation can read it. That is the seeded rule for this type and it is the reason the type exists: an open file does not inform the people in it, not even the person it is about. If your community wants that changed, it is a setting — see Report Types.

People found after you started show up as suggestions. Anyone added to a linked incident once the file exists appears in the list marked as a suggestion, with a count of how many are waiting. Confirm them onto the file or dismiss them; dismissing leaves them on the incident. A suggestion nobody decides on does not reach the published file, and the editor warns you before you publish.

Evidence photos

Scene photos belong here.

• A photo is saved the moment you add it. You do not have to save the report first, and closing the editor will not lose it.
• Very large images are compressed automatically; extremely detailed ones may be refused — crop them and add them again.
• Evidence is private, visible only to people who may see the report.

Publishing

An investigation stays a DRAFT while you are working it, visible to your department only. PUBLISH files it to the registry, where LEO can find it.

Publishing does not close the case. You can keep adding narrative entries and evidence to a published file as the investigation continues.

Arson: handing it to law enforcement

When an investigation concludes that a fire was set deliberately, the file itself is the handover. There is no separate transfer step:

1. Make sure the persons of interest are attached to the report.
2. Write the finding as a narrative entry — plainly, so it reads as a conclusion.
3. Publish.

From there a LEO officer opens your report and issues the warrant straight from it, carrying your file across as the grounds. The warrant keeps a link back to your investigation, so the arrest that follows is traceable to the fire report it came from. The arrest report is filed by law enforcement, against the person; your investigation stays what it is — the record of the fire.

You will not see the warrant button on your own report. Warrants are a law enforcement instrument, and the fire service does not issue them.

Working on a file together

Investigation files update live. An entry, a photo or a person added by a colleague appears in your editor without a refresh. The field you are typing in is never overwritten, and the narrative entry you are editing stays yours.

See the LEO handbook's Reports & Charges for the full report editor, including the parts that only apply to law enforcement.

When the cause is not obvious, you can also ask the public about the incident and read the answers anonymously — see Inquiries — Asking the Public.