Fire/Arson Investigations : Fire/Arson Investigations
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Re: Fire Cause Classification
Posted by: dcarpenter (IP Logged)
Date: May 05, 2022 10:00AM
As I have previously explained...
An accidental fire can involve human involvement with respect to the Fire Cause and how the competent ignition source came together with the first fuel ignited OR there was no human involvement.
For an incendiary fire, there is human involvement AND there is intent to initiate a fire where one was not going to occur, otherwise.
Thus, the discriminating factor between these two hypotheses is the intent of the human involvement. There needs to be evidence of human intent. Think Incendiary Fire Chapter.
Human intent as a discriminating factor between an accidental and incendiary fire is only addressed in previous versions of 921 in the Classification of the Fire Cause chapter.
Thus, removing this chapter removes the use of human intent as evidence of an incendiary fire. So how does a Fire Cause with human involvement become an incendiary fire without any methodology that allows for evidence of human intent to enter the analysis and determination?
Unless I am missing something, currently, it would appear that any Fire Cause determination with human involvement using the current NFPA 921 methodology will always be an accidental fire.
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
An accidental fire can involve human involvement with respect to the Fire Cause and how the competent ignition source came together with the first fuel ignited OR there was no human involvement.
For an incendiary fire, there is human involvement AND there is intent to initiate a fire where one was not going to occur, otherwise.
Thus, the discriminating factor between these two hypotheses is the intent of the human involvement. There needs to be evidence of human intent. Think Incendiary Fire Chapter.
Human intent as a discriminating factor between an accidental and incendiary fire is only addressed in previous versions of 921 in the Classification of the Fire Cause chapter.
Thus, removing this chapter removes the use of human intent as evidence of an incendiary fire. So how does a Fire Cause with human involvement become an incendiary fire without any methodology that allows for evidence of human intent to enter the analysis and determination?
Unless I am missing something, currently, it would appear that any Fire Cause determination with human involvement using the current NFPA 921 methodology will always be an accidental fire.
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
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