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future of fire
investigation
As the legal climate for arson and
fire investigations becomes more
demanding, their need for a
rigorous scientific foundation is
growing. Fortunately, federal
research efforts are already starting
to close the gap.
By Daniel Madrzykowski, ..
Fire Safety and Engineering Division
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, Md
Basic virtual office unit Laptop configured with color scanner, printer and Microsoft Professional Office software tools
Fire reports Field data collection of information needed for , and fire modeling
Interviews Written field witness interviews using prompted questions
Evidence collection Photography by digital and video cameras, printing of evidence labels
Fire scene diagramming Computer-assisted drafting of building floor plans and fire scene
Mapping and Plotting the fire scene location on a digital map using
- library Retrieval of fire reports, fire codes, and data profiles and models
Network conferencing Wireless network with other units with video desktop conferencing
Telecommunications Cellular and pager communications, faxing of reports from scene
the experiments: vinyl tile, wood par- ments were made, the spills were ignit- needed to produce a burn pattern of a
quet, dense-loop polyolefin carpeting ed. The resulting burn patterns were given size on number of common floor-
and cut-pile nylon carpeting. The floors measured and heat release rates were ing materials. Heat release rate data for
had no walls around them, to eliminate determined. A photograph of one of the each experiment is provided for use in
compartmentation effects, and were experiments is on page . fire model calculations.
positioned under a smoke hood instru- The results from this report provide In each of the carpeted floor experi-
mented to measure the heat release rate. fire investigators with a means to pre- ments, a doughnut pattern remained
After the initial spill pattern measure- dict the quantity of spilled gasoline where quantities of gasoline were pre-
sent. This phenomenon, which results
from the liquid accelerant actually
References/For further information insulating and cooling the carpet, is
consistent with the experience of many
1) Putorti, A.D. Jr., and J. McElroy, Rehm; A. Hamins; G.P. Forney, Fire fire investigators.
Full Scale House Fire Experiment for Dynamics Simulator Technical Refer- Additional liquid burn pattern exper-
InterFIRE VR, May , . National ence Guide, National Institute of Stan- iments are being planned in buildings
Institute of Standards and Technology, dards and Technology, Gaithersburg, of opportunity. The experiments con-
Gaithersburg, Md., , April . Md., , January . ducted at will be repeated in rooms
2) <www.usfa.fema.gov/napi/aims 7) Forney, G.P.; and K.B. McGrattan, to examine the effects of the compart-
.htm> Users Guide for Smokeview Version ment and then the additional effects on
3) Shanley, J.H. Jr., Fire Burn . A Tool for Visualizing Fire Dynam- the floor pattern of furnishings in the
Pattern Tests, . Federal Emer- ics Simulation Data, National Institute room. These experiments, sponsored by
gency Management Administration, of Standards and Technology, Gaithers- and , are scheduled for comple-
U.S. Fire Administration, Emmitsburg, burg, Md., , May . tion later this year.
Md., July . * 8) Madrzykowski, D.; and R. Vettori,
4) Putorti, A.D. Jr., Full Scale Room Simulation of the Dynamics of the Fire Fire in a computer
Burn Pattern Study, Report -. at Cherry Road N.E., Washington, Computer fire models have been used
U.S. Department of Justice, National D.C., May , , , April by fire investigators for many years.
Institute of Justice, Washington, D.C., . Typically these have been simple
December . * Available from Publications Cen- numerical correlations or zone mod-
5) Putorti, A.D. Jr.; J. McElroy; and ter, , S. Seton Ave., Emmits- els, such as -, ool or .
D. Madrzykowski, Flammable & Com- burg, Md. , --, <www These models can be used to calculate a
bustible Liquid Spill/Burn Patterns, .usfa.fema.gov/usfapubs>. characteristic temperature for the hot
-. U.S. Department of Justice, All other publications available from gas layer in a room and define the posi-
National Institute of Justice, Washing- , Bureau Drive, , Gai- tion of the hot gas layer height. [Ed.: See
ton, D.C., to be published. thersburg, Md. , <www.fire.nist The pyro PC, December , available
6) K.B. McGrattan; H.R. Baum; R.G. .gov>, <madrzy@nist.gov>. at <www.firechief.com>.]