ATF National Response Team Deploying to New York To Support Deadly Residential Fire Investigation
NEW YORK — The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives New York Field Division requested ATF’s National Response Team to provide technical assistance with the ongoing investigation of a devastating fatal fire in New York City that killed 17 people on Jan. 9.
NRT provides an immediate and sustained nationwide response capability, typically deploying within 24 hours of notification, with state-of-the-art equipment and highly qualified ATF personnel specializing in fire origin and cause determination.
The NRT recently deployed to Philadelphia to participate in the fire investigation of a fire in a residential row house that killed 13 individuals.
Past NRT activations include such incidents as an explosion in West Texas that killed 14 people in 2013; a fire that destroyed the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce; a commercial fire in Charleston, South Carolina, that killed nine firefighters in 2007; and national-level incidents such as the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and the Oklahoma City bombing.
This is the 6th NRT activation this fiscal year and the 881st since the inception of the NRT in 1978.
ATF is the federal agency with jurisdiction for investigating fires and crimes of arson. More information on ATF can be found at www.atf.gov.
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