The roads were still on fire a couple of days after the initial fire. “When I arrived, it was still an active scene,” says O’Neil. Days after the fire started, acres of forest were still burning. The conditions of the fire presented an issue for investigators. What they didn’t know was that Deputy O’Neil would be using a relatively new technology-a 3D laser scanner-to investigate the fire, cutting down on the time it took to investigate and providing an unprecedented level of detail. The Sheriff’s office sent Deputy Bryon O’Neil, with five years of experience in forensic investigation, to diagram the fire’s path and determine the cause. Dubbed the 36 Pit Fire, the fire led to a mass evacuation of residents from their homes and required firefighters to be activated from neighboring regions to help fight the fire.īut amid the fire and smoke, an unlikely new tool was helping firefighters determine the cause of the fire, and in the process helped the department deal with the media, determine the cause of the fire and clear the shooter suspected of intentionally starting the fire.Ī few days after the fire started, the US Forest Service called upon the Clackamas County Sheriff’s office to help them investigate what was suspected to be an intentional fire. On September 13, 2014, one of the largest forest fires in Oregon’s history raged across 5,521 acres just east of Portland.
