The assumption of the language in 921 on the application of the SM is that most fire investigators understand how to apply the SM in specific incidents. It is my experience that this assumption is not a valid assumption. I submitted quite a few proposals to the committee to better address how to apply the SM in 921. Not many were accepted by the committee with less than reliable justifications. I think there is a large segment of the fire investigation community that does not know how to reliably apply the SM in a specific incident. Big difference in understanding the general steps of the SM and how to reliable apply the SM to a specific set of data.

Part of my experience was in the writing of a chapter on fire investigation for John Wily & Sons in a forensic handbook. I included a section of the application of the SM to the investigation of fire and explosion incidents. After a review of the first draft, the editors came back with comments that I could reduce this section since everyone in the forensic sciences understands how to apply the SM. I responded with a detailed discussion of the basis of my impression that while that may be true for the forensic community at large, it was not true of the FI community. They saw my point of view and withdrew the comment.

Douglas J. Carpenter, MScFPE, CFEI, PE, FSFPE
Vice President & Principal Engineer
Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc.
8940 Old Annapolis Road, Suite L
Columbia, MD 21045
(410) 884-3266
(410) 884-3267 (fax)
www.csefire.com