LUMBERTON — A lieutenant with the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office who specializes in arson investigating was recently honored at the annual North Carolina Insurance Crime Information Exchange Conference in Greensboro.

The Jim Long Public Safety Investigator of the Year for 2012 award was given to Lt. Brian Duckworth on Feb. 14.

“It makes it feel like the work is being appreciated,” Duckworth said.

Duckworth has been the arson investigator for the Sheriff’s Office for three years. During that time, Duckworth has investigated 492 fires and determined that 322 of the fire cases were intentionally set. He has filed criminal charges in 101 of the cases.

“We’ve got some of the best firefighters — men and women — in our county,” he said. “It’s a lot of their work that preserves the evidence for me to make that arrest.”

According to departmental statistics, 100 percent of the cases Duckworth investigated have resulted in convictions when they went to court. Mickey Biggs. first vice president of N.C. Insurance Crime Information Exchange, said Duckworth has helped insurance companies recover millions of dollars from fraudulent claims.