Steve:

My problem is not with the information contained within 921 as to the elements in the document that can be used by the investigator during the investigation but some of the ideas that you must follow this procedure this way for the investigation to be considered as meeting the intent of the document.

In reading your information of what is a paradigm, and doing other research on the word I believe this is a concept that most investigators can agree on when it comes to the document. I agree, fire investigators like scientists tend to work the process that is explained in the scientific method within a certain intellectual framework, or "paradigm" as you suggest. What I have learned in just a short time of researching the word is that when the paradigm being used starts to lead to many failures due to the results from the testing of the hypothesis, initiates a period of broader questioning of the information contained within the paradigm that usually leads to a new paradigm. Simply saying the present paradigm, because of the nature of testing and experimentation will continue to evolve and could even result in a complete change. I think this is the best explanation of the process used by the committee in that at times there are minor changes made to a chapter and when it becomes necessary there is a complete revision of the chapter.

I wish we could say the following, “NFPA 921 is a generally agreed upon framework theory that guides how they identify problems and develop experiments and / or solutions to explain the problem. This framework theory, or paradigm, is used by the fire investigation community to decide what approaches fit; to decide what is appropriate and consistent with a generally accepted body of knowledge for the determining the origin and causes for fires and explosions.”