A Guide for Investigating Fire and Arson
- Arriving at the Fire and/or Arson Scene First responders to a fire scene must assess and secure the scene and ensure that victims receive medical attention. ...
- Evaluating the Scene Once a lead investigator arrives at the scene to relieve the first responders, he or she should evaluate the scene, identify witnesses and survey what must be done. ...
- Documenting the Scene ...
How to investigate a building fire?
A successful fire investigation consists of three main steps. Here we will share 3 Steps Fire & Explosion Experts Use to Investigate a Building Fire. 1. Assess and preserve the scene A fire investigation typically takes place alongside fire-fighting activities.
How do I write a fire investigation report?
Your local department can tell you the preferred method for reviewing evidence in your fire investigation report. After examining the scene, the evidence and witness statements, share your methodology for determining the origin and cause of the fire. Include details such as:
What are the primary purposes of a fire investigation?
The primary purposes of a fire investigation is to establish the origin (seat) of the fire, determine the likely cause, and thus conclude whether the incident was accidental, natural or deliberate.
What are the steps in an incident investigation?
An incident investigation is a multi-step process. Those steps include: Help provide any first aid, medical care, or assistance necessary Preserve the work area as it is/as it was at the time of the incident Use the findings of the incident investigation report to better identify and control hazards
How do you investigate fires?
The main steps of a fire investigation include:Arrive at the scene. Ensure safety of crime scene. Secure the area.Investigate the scene. Evaluate external structure. Evaluate interior structure. ... Document the evidence. Sample and tag evidence. ... Conclude the investigation. Finish necessary documents/reports.
What are the 4 key elements of fire investigation?
The basics of the scientific method are deceptively simple: observe, hypothesize, test, and conclude.
What should investigators look for at a fire scene?
The Fire Investigation Process Electrical hazards (e.g. faulty wiring) Inflammatory climate conditions (e.g. hot, dry weather) Human activity, both accidental and intentional (e.g. arson)
What are the three main components of a fire scene investigation?
Fire scene investigations typically involve three broad areas: (1) witness interviews, (2) the physical examination, and (3) forensic or engineering analysis.
Which task should be performed first when conducting a fire investigation?
With few exceptions, the proper methodology for a fire or explosion investigation is to first determine and establish the origin(s), then investigate the cause: circumstances, conditions, or agencies that brought the ignition source, fuel, and oxidant together.
Who usually performs fire investigation?
Fire investigation should be performed by one of the following: trained fire department investigators, the fire marshal's office, insurance-company investigators, or a law-enforcement agency. An origin and cause investigation determines where, why, and how the fire originated.
How is evidence collected from a fire scene?
When fire scene evidence is collected, the fire investigator should collect two evidence samples: primary evidence samples and comparison samples. Primary evidence should be obtained in an area or areas suspected to have been exposed to some type of liquid accelerant and should be analyzed to identify the accelerant.
What is the first step in fire cause determination?
The first step in a fire investigation is the preliminary scene examination/size-up. For best results, a trained fire investigator should be notified about and respond to serious fires or possible arson fires immediately after fire apparatus is dispatched.
What do fire investigators do?
Fire inspectors examine buildings in order to detect fire hazards and ensure that federal, state, and local fire codes are met. Fire investigators, another type of worker in this field, determine the origin and cause of fires and explosions.
What are the steps and process an investigator takes while investigating an arson scene?
The Process of Investigating ArsonStep One: Arrival at Scene. ... Step Two: Evaluating the Scene. ... Step Three: Documenting the Scene. ... Step Four: Processing Evidence. ... Step Five: Completing the Investigation.
What are the stage in the conduct of investigation?
PIs conduct deep online or in-person research; retrace steps of an investigation and gather evidence; interview victims, suspects and witnesses; perform background and records checks; and conduct surveillance.
What is the difference between fire investigation and arson investigation?
An arson investigator will try to determine who is responsible for setting a fire; a fire investigator will attempt to determine the cause and origin of a fire.
What are the 4 classifications of fire causes?
"Fire Cause" chapter included section 12-2 "Classification of Fire Cause." That section stated, "The cause of a fire may be classified as accidental, natural, incendiary (arson), or undetermined." "13 Subsections defined these four classifications, providing brief examples of each.
What is the elements of fire?
Oxygen, heat, and fuel are frequently referred to as the "fire triangle." Add in the fourth element, the chemical reaction, and you actually have a fire "tetrahedron." The important thing to remember is: take any of these four things away, and you will not have a fire or the fire will be extinguished.
What are 3 ways investigators identify accelerants?
Signs that an arson investigator may find at the scene of a fire after it's extinguished are rainbow colors along the surface of liquids remaining at the scene, burn patterns that indicate the presence of an accelerant, a window that's clean of soot on the fire side but melted, or any indication that a fire burned ...
What are the elements of arson?
It can be defined as the deliberate and malicious burning of property having three main elements. First, there has been a burning of property. Second, the burning is incendiary in origin, and finally, the burning was started with the intent of destroying the property.
What is fire investigation?
Fire Investigation. Fire investigation involves the examination of all fire-related incidents once firefighters have extinguished the fire. The practice is similar to the examination of crime scenes in that the scene must be preserved and evidence collected and analysed, but with numerous additional difficulties and dangers.
How to determine if a fire is a forced entry?
The investigation should ideally begin with an external examination of the scene. This allows for the identification of entry point, signs of forced entry, indications as to the origin and cause of the fire, artefacts, and any possible safety concerns. All doors and windows should be examined to establish whether or not they were locked during the fire. Once again, fire-fighters may have forcefully entered the building or smashed windows to provide ventilation, and damage caused by the fire itself may appear similar to signs of forced entry. The external examination will also allow for the search for items relevant to the incident, such as tools used to break into the building, ladders or containers of flammable substances. It may also be important to note weather conditions, as temperature and wind conditions can affect a fire in terms of fire propagation and direction.
What are the three components of fire?
In order for a fire to occur, three vital components must be present: a fuel source, an oxidant (O 2) and a sufficient amount of energy in the form of heat. Together these make up the fire triangle.
What is the fourth factor in fire?
A fourth factor can also be described – a self-sustaining chemical chain reaction – to produce the fire tetrahedron. The absence of any of these conditions will result in a fire not starting or extinguishing through smothering (oxygen removal), cooling (heat removal) or starving (fuel removal).
How does heat from a fire spread?
Heat produced by a fire can spread in one of three ways; convection, conduction and radiation. Convection is the transfer of heat through air circulation, and only occurs in liquids and gases. An example of convection is the heat from a fire rising and heating the ceiling of a room.
Why should fire fighters be interviewed?
Fire fighters should also be interviewed to identify any disturbances made to the scene during fire-fighting efforts. Ideally eyewitnesses should be interviewed by an objective individual with experience in interviewing in such a way that the information they provide is not influenced. Scene Examination.
How do you determine the color of a flame?
The colour of a flame is basically determined by the wavelength of light emitted, which varies depending on the material. For example, red/yellow/orange flames are commonly encountered when carbon is present. Inorganic substances can produce more obvious colour differences, such as copper which will cause a green flame.
What is the final step in a fire investigation?
The final step in a fire investigation is searching for what caused the fire. The cause of a fire can range from the easily identifiable, such as matches, candles or lighters, to something not as obvious.
What is a fire investigation expert?
Many times when there is a fire event that involves injuries or death, a fire investigation expert is hired by an insurance company or attorney to investigate the incident and determine the origin and cause of the fire. A successful fire investigation consists of three main steps. Here we will share 3 Steps Fire & Explosion Experts Use to Investigate a Building Fire.
How does fire spread?
Just like all forms of heat, fire can spread in three ways: conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction occurs when there is direct contact with the fire or hot objects, and convection is when heated air or gaseous-combustion products contact combustible materials.
How does conduction affect bonfires?
This is the heat you feel when standing near a bonfire. Often conduction and radiation allow a fire to spread outward as the heat starts to warm up nearby objects and until those also ignite. In a convection situation a fire spreads upward as heated air rises.
Why do electrical fires start?
Fires caused by faulty electrical wires or equipment are hard to investigate since the appliance or device which started the fire may be totally destroyed. Furthermore, the existence of an electrical failure doesn’t mean the failure itself caused the fire. Nevertheless, the most common places for electrical fires to start are outlets since loose connections within the outlet may arc and ignite the surrounding material.
What is the most common place for fires to occur in a home?
The most common places for fires to occur in homes is the kitchen. The NFPA reports that between 2011 and 2015 43 percent of home structure fires started in the kitchen. Often, these fires start due to unattended cooking equipment igniting something flammable.
How does fire modeling help?
Modeling can help estimate the response of various fire protection systems.
What is the purpose of fire investigation?
The purpose of a fire investigation is to determine how the fire started and why the fire behaved the way it did. Data collected through fire investigations is a key element in addressing a community's fire problem. In order to close the loop in implementing and supporting a professional program, fire investigations must play a significant role in ...
Who is responsible for investigating fires?
Most of the nationally recognized fire codes give legal authority to the fire chief to investigate fires. In some cases the responsibility of the fire investigation may be another municipal or district entity such as the police or county sheriff department.
Why is fire investigation important?
In order to close the loop in implementing and supporting a professional program, fire investigations must play a significant role in our prevention efforts. Remember the basics of program development; identify, plan, implement, and evaluate. Fire investigation is one of the most important ways of identifying our targets.
What is fire prevention bureau?
Fire prevention bureaus focus their efforts on inspection, education and enforcement. However, the actual fire problem in the community is not always linked to these efforts through data obtained during local fire investigations. Not using fire investigation data for prevention is not just a local issue. As we know, the fire service does not ...
What happens if a fire investigation revealed smoke detectors were not present?
If the fire investigation revealed smoke detectors were not present, this is an opportunity to seek ways of ensuring senior citizens are provided with smoke detectors in their homes. There are a number of benefits to collecting fire investigation data. Fire department collected fire investigation data can be used for:
Does the fire service act in a proactive manner?
As we know, the fire service does not usually act in a proactive manner. We tend to continually react after the incident and not before. For instance, we modify our nationally recognized codes only after major incidents that receive the national spot light.
What information is included in a fire investigation report?
Many fire investigation reports include detailed background information, such as the weather conditions at the time of the fire, including temperature, wind speed and wind direction. Reports also describe the response of the firefighters, including when they arrived, what equipment they brought to the scene and how the department operates.
What is a fire investigation report?
A fire investigation report reviews the fire, describing its origin and cause if that can be determined. Having this information allows government agencies to improve safety standards for buildings and can give families a sense of closure.
What are the two types of bias in fire investigation?
The two main forms of bias that a fire investigation report could inadvertently include are: Expectation bias. This happens when you investigate with a specific expectation in mind and draw your conclusions too early without considering all the options. Confirmation bias.
What is the importance of interviewing witnesses?
Interviewing witnesses is critical to conducting a thorough investigation. In this section, summarize each interview, including the name of the person, his role in the report (neighbor, firefighter, etc.) and what each person said. You may want to use a combination of direct quotes and summaries.
Why is it important to write a fire report?
Report writing on a house on fire or another type of structure is critical to ensuring your thoughts and conclusions are available for review. In addition to reviewing training materials such as a fire report-writing PowerPoint, you can gain valuable insights on how your department structures reports by asking for a fire incident report sample doc.
What is a summary in a report?
If your report has a summary or abstract, include the date and time of the incident and a timeline of what occurred along with your findings.
Why do you use bullet points in fire?
Using bullet points can help clarify your points. State the origin clearly and state that while it is your opinion, it is based on thorough analysis and scientific methodology. Your department may also require you to include a fire classification, including whether there was any foul play or arson.
What is incident investigation?
An incident investigation is something you (and/or others in your company) should perform when an incident occurs at the workplace. This can include near-misses, quality problems, accidents, property damage, illnesses, injuries, and fatalities. There are two primary purposes of an incident investigation.
Why should all workers be included in an incident investigation?
In addition, all workers could potentially be included in an incident investigation--being interviewed because they were directly involved or because they were witnesses. As we mentioned earlier, it's important that they understand the purpose of the incident investigation isn't to assign blame or punish. Make sure all workers know in advance that incidents will be followed by incident investigations, and make sure they realize the purpose of an incident investigation is to determine root causes and implement preventive measures so similar incidents won't happen again. And that the purpose isn't to assign blame or punish.
What happens if you don't plan your investigation?
If you have already planned your response and investigation, hats off to you. If not, you can begin planning now. But if you don't begin planning your investigation until you've had an incident at work, you're much too late and will be behind the proverbial eight-ball.
When going to the site where the incident took place, what do you take with you?
When going to the site where the incident took place, take with you an incident investigation kit.
What is the purpose of a root cause investigation?
The first purpose is to identify the root cause or causes of the incident. That's the short-term goal. And the second purpose is to use the information gathered in the incident investigation, and the determination of the root cause, to prevent a similar incident from happening again. That's the long-term goal.
Why should conditions be the same as they were immediately after the incident?
Because you would have already barricaded the area, conditions should be the same as they were immediately after the incident (or as close to that as possible).
How to interview a worker?
Interview the Workers Affected and/or Involved. Take the person to a place where you can interview him/her privately. While you're interviewing the person, keep the conversation informal. Talk to the person as an equal--don't talk down to the person. Avoid creating an atmosphere that's accusatory or confrontational.
