As fire marshal, Renberg handles arson investigations, other cases

Feb. 22--Henderson County Fire Marshal Shane Renberg returned from a fire in Cherokee Shores on Wednesday ready to pore into the tasks waiting at his desk.

"A fire is a living, breathing thing," he said. "They act in different ways."

Arson is the hardest crime to prove, Renberg said. Many variables must be considered.

He said he's spent up to a year and a half investigating arson cases from the fires through the convictions. If it's an arson, he works the case all the way to the end. If it is ruled an accident, the fire marshal stops there and lets the insurance companies take over.

"We work fires from the least burned to the greatest burned area," Renberg said. "It's a lot of work digging through a fire, and you can run into other crimes solving an arson case."

Renberg said he looks at the fire scene and eliminates anything that turns out not to be the cause. The fire marshal's job is a combination of fire service and law enforcement.

"Most peace officers hold one state certification," Renberg said. "We hold five."

Renberg grew up in the Payne Springs area and likes having a job in which he can serve the people of his home county. He attended the East Texas Police Academy and took a job with the Payne Springs Police Department.

"A girl in the academy worked for the fire marshal's office," Renberg said. "It seemed neat the way they could investigate a fire."

Renberg went to arson school and passed his state exam. The county fire marshal at the time was John Holcomb.

"We both used to work at Solar Turbines," Renberg said. "He said he needed a deputy to work the west end of the county."

Renberg became interim fire marshal when Holcomb left, then served under Darryl Furrh. When Furrh retired, Renberg was chosen by the county commissioners to fill the spot. His latest two-year term began in January.

Four people work in the office, including Renberg. Many tasks besides fire investigations are within their area of responsibility.

"We are like a catch-all for things in the government code," Renberg said.

A major task is handling the county's public-nuisance cases. There were 1,400 last year.

Renberg said the fire marshal's office became involved in public nuisance when calls kept coming in for the county to do something about them. Precinct 2 Commissioner Wade McKinney and Precinct 1 Commissioner Joe Hall took some of the money from their budgets and set it aside for public-nuisance enforcement.

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