The John Deere warehouse fire, more correctly called the Rivers City Warehouse fire, was the largest fire in the United States in 2001, discounting the 9/11 attack. The warehouse was just less than 1,000,000 square feet and at the time of the investigation the loss was estimated at up to $500 million.

There were well over thirty fire, engineering, and forensic investigators actually involved in the on-scene investigation which lasted for several months.

About a dozen of the NFPA 921 committee members were involved in the investigation. Many of these committee members believed that the handling of the organization of this “Major Case” fire was done so poorly that they initiated a full re-write of the Major Case Chapter of NFPA 921. This re-write of the chapter, now called “Complex Investigations” is up for final voting by the committee within two weeks. Upon passage by the committee, tghe new 2008 edition of 921 should be on the agenda for the full NFPA meeting next year.

I think this is a great example of how the fire investigation community, particularly those “ivory tower” guys on the 921 committee, respond to practical problems which occur in our industry with practical solutions expressed in 921. This is the essence of the peer review nature of the document.

Pat Kennedy, CFEI, CFPS, MIFireE
Fire and Explosion Analyst
Sarasota, Florida
[www.kennedy-fire.com]