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Photo Courtesy of Sid Eads
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K-9 Aretha | |
CHIEF TERRY McGRATH HAS BEEN PROMOTED TO ASSISTANT CHIEF. THE FIRE INVESTIGATION POSITION IS CURRENTLY VACANT. CHIEF McGRATH AND HIS INVESTIGATORS ARE COVERING THE DUTIES OF THIS POSITION. HIS K-9 PARTNER, ARETHA, HAS MOVED WITH HIM TO HIS NEW POSITION.
The investigative division consists of one full-time fire investigator holding the rank of Division Chief and fourteen on-shift investigators and one additional Division Chief. Both Division Chiefs as well as four of the investigators are certified Peace Officers and Origin and Cause investigators with the remaining being Origin and Cause only.
The investigative unit is used on all suspicious or unknown causes involving structure, vehicle, and wild land fires. The group is also responsible for background checks for new applicants, responds to bomb threats/suspicious items, and performs internal affairs investigations.
The shift investigators are used after hours and when the full time investigator is off. They are responsible for determining the origin and cause of a fire and gathering all necessary information for police and prosecution reports.
If there is a fire of major loss or multiple points of origin, the unit has resources to handle virtually any situation. These resources include investigators from surrounding communities in Denton County. This coalition of investigators is known as the Denton County Arson Task Force.
The cost to the citizens of Lewisville to have this wealth of resources available is only to send one of our investigators to the scene of a fire when the Task Force is called out. We also assist our neighboring communities in investigations without the full task force activation. Again this is done in a trade off style, in that they will respond to our city if needed under the mutual aid agreement we have with them.
Chief McGrath has a K-9 partner, Aretha. She is a Yellow Labrador Retriever trained and certified by the ATF in explosives detection. Through this program Chief McGrath is deputized by the US Marshal’s service as a Task Force Agent for the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives . Chief McGrath and Aretha have assisted with security at all motorsports events at the Texas Motor Speedway, collegiate football games, 2010 NBA All Star Game and the 2008 Superbowl in Phoenix. The team has also provided sweeps for Former President George Bush and Laura Bush, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs along with several Supreme Court Justices. The Lewisville Fire Department is proud to have Aretha as a member of our Department. | 
