Criminal Investigator of the YearFor Decareaux, award is ‘icing on the cake’
Published 12:35 am Saturday, November 6, 2010
Vicksburg’s lead fire investigator, Leslie Decareaux, can’t imagine working at anything else, so when the Mississippi Fire Investigators Association presented her with its top award, she knew she was right on track.
“That was probably the pinnacle of my career,” Decareaux, 50, said in an interview this week. “I wasn’t expecting it at all.”
Decareaux, a 19-year fire service veteran, was presented the association’s annual Criminal Investigator of the Year award during a semi-annual conference in Natchez last week.
“She’s a good investigator,” said Deputy State Fire Marshal James Jackson, who is the association’s central vice president. “We look at investigators and find out who works hard, how many fires and how many arrests they’ve had. She keeps good records and does a good job.”
Decareaux’s nomination comes after her work piecing together 10 years of records in a case that resulted in an arson arrest earlier this year, Jackson said.
“She’s a person who pays attention to detail like any other person who likes things done the right way,” Vicksburg Fire Chief Charles Atkins said. “She’s a precision-type person. I applaud her for that.”
In Vicksburg, 13 fire-related arrests have been made this year due to Decareaux and her team of investigators.
Decareaux is the association’s first woman to be recognized for the criminal side of fire investigating. A woman has received the award for the civil side.
In 1994, Decareaux was the first woman firefighter from the VFD to be certified through the state fire academy.
Decareaux has been a Vicksburg fire investigator for 11 years and was a firefighter for eight. Before that, she spent time training horses.
“It attracted me to see people who help others in the public,” she said of her career choice. “I felt drawn to it. I really believe it was God’s blessing for me to do it.”
The plaque Decareaux received from the association hangs in her office on what she calls her career wall.
“That just put the icing on the cake for me,” she said.