When incendiary and destructive devices were left above Black’s Beach, a collaboration of special city divisions stepped in to investigate.
A May 12 incident on La Jolla’s Saigon Trail, during which a special San Diego Fire-Rescue Department team identified and removed incendiary and destructive items from the trail, serves as a spotlight on the many components of the SDFD’s Special Operations Division.
During the May 12 incident, a hiker called 911 around 9:45 am, reporting suspicious items found along the trail, which is a treacherous, steep path leading to the southern portion of Black’s Beach in between the bluffs.
Fire engine 35 near UTC responded to the call, calling in the department’s Metro Arson Strike Team (MAST).
MAST is comprised of San Diego Fire, Police and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) members.
MAST Capt James Shadoan was part of the May 12 response team, which included SDFD’s bomb squad and proceeded down the trail, collecting pieces of evidence found over several yards.
“It’s a pretty good trek down there,” Shadoan said. “It isn’t the easiest terrain to traverse.”
The evidence collected included incendiary and destructive devices such as a cork filled with black powder, a hobby fuse and two containers of gasoline gas taped together with homemade fuses, with indications some may have been lit.
Per protocol, the Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) team tested the contents of the containers, confirming the substance was gasoline.
“In the wrong hands, a child picks it up, or anyone picks it up and decides to light it, and it can cause some damage,” Shadoan.
Because of the risks, simply being in possession of the found materials is a felony, he said.
Adding to the danger: the materials’ location on the trail, as “we’ve seen what happens with vegetation fires,” Shadoan said.
The materials collected were “quite excessive,” he added, noting “we have leads and surveillance video that we’re investigating.”
Why MAST matters
At a typical fire department scene, the first responders determine origin and cause. If an incident is thought to be an intentional act, SDPD and MAST get involved, Shadoan said.
MAST has two employees working 24/7, he said, a captain and an engineer. One works on origin and cause and the other conducts interviews, interrogation and more.
The team works out of Fire Station 1 in Downtown San Diego, in an office with SDPD and Fire and ATF personnel, which facilitates quick collaboration: once an incident is determined to be a crime, the team can immediately access SDPD computers, software, and information.
Shadoan writes up a crime case, he said, which is then assigned to one of the three MAST/SDPD detectives in the unit.
“All [the dedicated detectives] do is arson cases,” he said, working each case with an investigator from the fire department.
MAST responds to 300 to 400 calls in the city of San Diego per year, he said, seldomly in La Jolla.
“We’re a pretty busy unit. You don’t really hear a whole lot about [us]. …We just kind of fly under the radar,” Shadoan said.
Also not widely known: the ATF has a “very robust” fire investigation unit,” he said, with the only two certified fire investigators in Southern California based here in San Diego.
“They’re a very good resource for us to have,” Shadoan said.
Why MAST exists
Most San Diego citizens don’t know that MAST even exists, let alone the rest of the services provided by the SD Fire-Rescue Department, according to Chief Steven Lozano, who leads the Special Operations Division.
The division includes MAST, HAZMAT, Aircraft Rescue, Technical Rescue, Emergency Management, Air Operations, Special Events Coordination, a Community Emergency Response Team, Urban Search & Rescue team, bomb squad and Alternative Energy Emergency Response Coordinator.
“We’re such a dynamic fire department and police department that we can offer these resources,” Lozano said, adding when MAST calls for HAZMAT or the bomb squad or another special team, “that’s all San Diego. That’s all us.”
Having such a breadth of special teams in the division means a stronger county and country, Lozano said, as San Diego personnel will integrate on incidents in Del Mar or the South Bay, as well as training and working with federal partners to become the predominant arson investigators.
“That’s how you connect the dots and maybe get in front of something, or notice a pattern where we can be more preventative,” he said.
The “tremendous” resources in the SD Fire-Rescue Department serve a greater purpose locally, he said: to share the burden of the first responders who need the help.
“Fire engines and fire trucks will still be going up and down the road, running medical aids, fighting fires, finding wildland fires and saving people’s lives,” Lozano said.
Special Operations shows up “to lighten the load,” he said, “to get those fire engines and those fire trucks back on the road to do the rescues, the medical aids and fighting the fires, because they’re the most important piece.”
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