With piles of stuff waist deep, 16 hours is a perfectly reasonable time frame. Yes, it makes the FD look bad for not finding that darned ember, but they can just blame it on the incredibly bad housekeeping.

I had a good friend whose garage caught fire. The FD extinguished it, or thought they did, but about 12 hours later the whole house was involved. The FD investigator stated that they "never" had rekindles, and declared that the second fire was "suspicious." My friend had called me after the first fire, believed to have started near a golf cart that was being charged. After the second fire he called in a panic, fearing correctly that if the fire was determined to be arson, he was the obvious suspect. Luckily, the site was only about 3 hours from my house. I was viewed with suspicion on my arrival, and was kept out of the structure, but the FD investigator, after making a few phone calls, finally asked for my help in doing the reconstruction. Late in the day a State investigator showed up and satisfied himself that the rekindle was just that.

Upon learning that the FD was going to be embarrassed, he stated (jokingly) "Well then, let's just call it arson!"

I wonder what might have happened if I had been unable to get there when I did.

John Lentini, CFI, D-ABC
Fire Investigation Consultant
Florida Keys
[www.firescientist.com]