THE ABCs OF FIRE INVESTIGATION
FIRE INVESTIGATION
The once tall-standing building is now a blackened ruin. The bone-weary firefighters have rolled up the hoselines, gathered all of their equipment, and returned to the fire station. They have cleaned the dirty equipment and made ready their apparatus to respond to another emergency. The burned building’s ashes have cooled, the sky has become overcast, and it is beginning to rain. The ruins of the building are ready for an examination to determine origin and cause of fire.
As the local fire investigator, you arrive at the charred ruins minutes, hours, or possibly even days after the fire has been extinguished. The remains of the partially destroyed building hold your attention—they are only a semblance of what they once were. From your vantage point inside your warm vehicle, you see scattered about twisted, melted, and charred remains and contents, most of which are indistinguishable from one another until closer examination.
You have to gather as many facts as possible—you’re expected not only to establish the most logical cause of the fire but to eliminate beyond a reasonable doubt other possible causes. You most likely will be questioning possible suspects or eyewitnesses and other emergency personnel, and you eventually will submit to the proper authorities some type of written document outlining the facts you have gathered. Basically, you will decide whether the fire was caused by design or was accidental in nature and explain in detail how you determined those findings.
How you accomplish or do not accomplish the above scenario may have a great impact on other people, places, and things. If you do not conduct a top-notch fire investigation properly, it is possible that guilty individuals may not be charged with a crime, if indeed a crime was committed. It is possible that innocent individuals may be wrongly accused. It also is possible that your reputation and your department’s reputation may be harmed by an inefficient or even inept investigation in which you overlooked valuable information on defective equipment or appliances or have not established proper liability.
Certain questions throughout the fire investigation process will need answering and clarification. You, the fire investigator, will be the key that opens the investigation. How this process eventually unfolds begins with your attitude.
With a positive attitude, you can conduct a fire investigation in a professional manner. In the event of a fire in which the exact cause is undetermined, the attitude of the investigator has a great bearing on the course of the investigation. During the interviewing, background checking, and fire scene analysis, you may uncover certain facts that lead to a probable motive or other answers.
After attitude, the quality of your investigation relies on your attention to what I call “The ABCs of Fire Investigation.”
ABC: ACCURATE, BELIEVABLE, CREDIBLE
Think of a triangle. Each side represents an intangible component that defines a positive investigation process. These are accuracy, believability, and credibility—the goals of every fire investigator.
The flip side of the positive investigation process is, of course, the negative investigation process, defined and fueled by apathy, bias, and carelessness. They more often than not result in sloppy, unreliable investigation and documentation techniques that are counterproductive to your primary goal as an investigator: to arrive at the truth and support your position as clearly and logically as possible. But let’s focus on the positive side of the triangle.
An accurate fire cause investigation begins with an optimistic attitude— an attitude that you will carry out the job to the best of your ability without unfounded guesswork or speculation that leads to unanswered questions and open-ended conclusions. Your reputation is viewed by others not only during the fire scene examination but during the subsequent duties of the investigation case. Did you accurately jot down the statements you took during the interviewing phase even if they themselves contain an untruth? Did you accurately record your interpretations of the various fire indicators and explain them by sound, logical thought?
Determine if your fire scene examination is believable or if apathy, bias, and carelessness have led you astray. Here is an example: A fire is said to be the result of an electric iron that was left turned on resting on a metal ironing board with a cloth cover. The iron is plugged in but the ironing board cloth cover beneath the iron is not damaged, even though the remainder of the cloth covering surrounding the iron is charred. The iron itself is not misshapen and the appliance cord adheres tightly to the wiring. Is the iron a believable fire cause?
A gasoline container located in the living room about 15 feet away from the iron appears as if it is tossed in the corner. The metal can is lying on its side, the lid is missing, and the can appears undamaged. Is it logical that the iron is the cause of the fire?
The occupants arrived at this twostory dwelling about one-and-a-half hours before the fire was reported. NVhen the first fire apparatus arrived on the scene, the dwelling was approximately 80 percent involved with fire. Is it still believable that the iron caused the fire?
There is no difficulty in picking out a possible cause of fire in a building that literally contains hundreds of possible ignition sources and using any one as a possible fire cause. If you determine a fire cause, you must support it with sound, logical thought and factual data proven beyond a reasonable doubt. If you cannot determine a fire cause, it is not a reflection on your credibility as a fire investigator. Far too often “electrical” and “smoking” are listed as fire causes when, in reality, they were not the most probable fire cause.
Credibility becomes most important during the documentation portion of the investigation. The fire scene sketches, the notes from interviews, the evidence, the photographs, and all other information gathered must be compiled and structured into a sound, written document in chronological order.
A top-notch fire scene investigation is of little consequence without the proper notes and photographs assembled into a properly laid-out fire report. Such a report is concise, contains no unanswered questions, and is built on a foundation of an accurate fire scene examination, a believable fire cause, and a credible written document.
