Oh, Canada!!!!

So Canada was beautiful. I flew into Toronto and lectured for the Canadian National Advanced Fire and Explosion Training Program put on by Dennis Merckley of Fire Facts Incorporated. I had the pleasure of lecturing with Steve Carmen (retired ATF) and met his son and partner, Clinton Carmen. Everyone else was from above the border. I found routine objects to be fascinating with bilingual French and English writing on most everything. That and the money was strange.

I did not get to travel downtown, but I have been invited back next year, so I will make it a mission to spend more time there. It was a very international city and everyone was so nice. I have had some Canadian students before and hope to see more in the future.

Several highlights of my trip included going to Peter's, where I had an amazing filet and the maitre d' at the restaurant gave every woman a rose after dinner- it was very elegant. Peter's had only old white men as servers (in an asian part of town), who made everything fresh. And then the following day I was invited to tour the Coroner's Court, where the Medical Examiner's Office and Department of Forensic Sciences were housed in this 1 year old beautiful building with 5 levels and an open atrium so that you could see into the laboratories all of the state-of-the-art equipment. Their autopsy suites were 3X the size of my current office in Norfolk, but they handle a much larger population. They had a CT scanner and an MRI for doing virtual autopsies. The forensic anthropology laboratory was huge, with steam and electric pots, along with a well maintained bone room.

Everyone I met was super nice and it was such a bustling international city, I cannot wait to return.

Thanks for reading.

pope

From Lake Tahoe to Toronto, eh?

Last week I had a wonderful visit with Terry Taylor of Nevada IAAI, where I lectured for his chapter on fatal fire investigation to a wonderful group of investigators and students from the University of Nevada, Reno. We met at the Nugget and had a wonderful time discussing future collaboration on fatal fire/taphonomic research involving burned bone and other ideas. Prior to my lecture, Mr. Taylor pointed me in the direction of Lake Tahoe, which I spent 2 days driving around it and admiring its beauty. I found Pope Beach and got a selfie, although it was raining so it wasn't that good. Nevertheless, I had a great time driving around seeing beautiful log cabins, trees, the blue lake and the snow capped mountains at an elevation of 5000-6000 ft above sea level. I found a sock store and bought some new socks with crime scene tape around them and some new skeleton socks for good luck.

Tomorrow, I leave for Toronto, Canada for the 2014 Canadian National Advanced Fire and Explosion Training Program.

This will be a fun trip and the first stamp in my new passport. We have had several investigators from Canada attend the SLOFIST Fatal Fire Death Investigation Course so maybe I will get to see some past (and hopefully future) students. I have my coat and scarf and am ready to brave the winter weather

That's all for now.

Be safe.

pope

Welcome to Burned Bone

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I just got back from the International Association of Arson Investigators Annual Training Conference and had a wonderful time meeting old and new friends.

Some future dates for lecture include:

June 23-27, 2014 San Luis Obsipo, California Fatal Fire Course through SLOFIST www.slofist.org

August 8, 2014 West Palm Beach, Florida Fire Seminar

September 29-30, 2014 Reno, Nevada for the Nevada IAAI Chapter.

Thanks

pope

Back from California

Hello everyone- all went well in San Luis Obispo, California this past week, where we had 76 Law Enforcement/Fire Investigator/Coroners/CSI/ and scientists train in the Forensic Fire Death Investigation Course, sponsored by the San Luis Obispo Fire Investigative Strike Team and the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office and Coroner Divisions. This was the 8th annual course that we have put on that has trained professionals from the United States, Canada, and past students from Europe. This year was by far the best as far as students who participated in the classroom and the field operations- everything went smooth and as planned. I made many new friends and got to see some old ones that traveled from Louisiana and Florida. We are already planning for next year, where the scenes will be even better after some lessons learned this year.

I got to eat from a 7 pound fresh King crab down by the Pacific Ocean at Pismo Beach- much bigger than my little Maryland blue crabs but just as rewarding. I also had fresh Dungeness crab and Small Slipper Lobster- these were especially delicious with butter.

My next adventure takes me to the east coast in West Palm Beach, Florida for a Fatal Fire Lecture and hopefully eat some fresh oysters and seafood.

Anyway, its back to work for me for awhile before I get airborne again.

Thanks for stopping by.

Pope

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