First, I would like to address the word incendiary as found in the latest edition of 921. NFPA 921 defines Incendiary Fire as being a fire that is intentionally ignited in an area or under circumstances where and when there should not be a fire.

I believe the use of the term Incendiary, when talking about the cause of a fire, is now in conflict with the intent of the committee to remove the classification section without a better explanation within the document. Maybe it would be better in that chapter to say a fire starting with a deliberate action of an individual which may or may not have anything to do with a criminal intent. Presently, 921 is suggesting that an Incendiary Fire is a criminal intent, thereby they have just classified the cause of the fire.

If 921 would just stick to the determination of the fuel ignited and the source of heat igniting the fuel it would achieve the goal, they state they were trying to achieve when the abolished the classification chapter and that is to keep the document to determining the fire cause. In doing this they would stay true to their intent.

So now what the investigator would be determining is a fire that originated due to the actions of a person. The investigator would not be determining the intent of the person to reach a conclusion as to how the fire started. The intent would be a different segment of the investigation. This segment could be conducted by the same individual or a different individual. This would bifurcate the investigation into two parts. The first to determine a fire cause and the second to determine an intent of a person directly involved in the cause. This way the fire cause uses the methodology as outlined in 921 for its determination and a different methodology is used to determining the reasons behind a person’s actions.

Jim Mazerat
Forensic Investigations Group