Police detective named 'Arson Investigator of the Year'.

Byline: Rebecca Nolan The Register-Guard

A Eugene police detective who played a lead role in a six-year investigation of vandalism and arson committed by radical environmentalists throughout the West has been named Oregon's "Arson Investigator of the Year" by the International Association of Arson Investigators.

Detective Bob Holland has investigated many high-profile fires in his 10 years on the Eugene police arson investigation unit, an ad hoc team of about a half-dozen specially trained detectives.

Holland was nominated for the award by the team's supervisor, Eugene police Sgt. Terry Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick said the detective dedicated untold hours to the sweeping Operation Backfire investigation. The federal investigation netted more than a dozen people suspected of committing acts of vandalism and arson in the name of the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front.

Thirteen people have pleaded guilty to crimes related to the multistate investigation and are awaiting sentencing in federal court. Members of the group have been accused of firebombing three locations in Eugene between 1999 and 2001.

"Without his dedication, energy and skill many of these criminals would still be free roaming our country," Fitzpatrick wrote in a nominating letter to the arson association. "Detective Holland is well deserving of Investigator of the Year."

The Eugene police team has a 35 percent clearance rate in arson cases, more than double the national average of 16.5 percent, the department said.

Holland has been with the Eugene Police Department for 25 years and also spent 10 years as a volunteer firefighter west of the city. Most of the time, he investigates property crimes for the police department. But when a suspicious fire breaks out, he quickly changes roles.

"I probably go out on a fire once a week," Holland said recently. "I listen to the fire channel (on the police radio) and respond to fires in progress just in case it's an arson. There's a lot you can learn watching how the fire is suppressed."

He said investigating arson allows him to combine his fire service experience with the gumshoe work of a detective, tracking leads and interviewing witnesses, victims and suspects.

He was on a team of detectives that helped track down two teenage boys later convicted of firebombing a retired school administrator's vehicles in 2004.

In that case, forensic analysts were able to recover DNA evidence from the burned wick of the Molotov cocktail the boys had thrown at the administrator's cars, sparking a fire that destroyed one car and severely damaged another at the man's home.

"That had not been done before and was published in some scientific journals," Holland said. "Before then, the thought was that the fire and gasoline would have destroyed the DNA."

He also helped arrest two 14-year-old boys who started a fire that caused up to $500,000 in damage to North Eugene High School last year. "We had those guys in custody within a week," Holland said. Both were convicted.

He spent two straight weeks investigating a fire set Nov. 1 in a downtown Eugene apartment to cover up the slaying of 21-year-old Noah Paul Scott Thacker of Eugene. That case remains unsolved.

Holland said the award was especially significant because he was nominated and selected by his peers.

The recipient must show outstanding achievement and professionalism in the field of fire and arson investigation to be considered.

"It's an honor for a police officer to get it, because of the number of fires we investigate vs. the number of fires someone with the fire department investigates," he said.

Last year's award also went to a local investigator. Deputy Springfield Fire Marshal Brian Parmalee was given the honor in 2005 for his investigation of 13 arson fires set in that city's historic Washburn District. The investigation led to the arrest and conviction of the man responsible, who is now serving 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison.