You ask how the chapter on Incendiary Fires information practical for fire investigators. One needs to understand that 921 is written to a wide range of persons. Some are the public sector, and some are the private sector. In both there are those just responsible in determining the origin and cause for the fire, where there are others that conduct investigation into the intent of the person involved. Each has a different need. Not all sections of 921 apply to every person conducting fire investigations. Some are there to just determine if there is a criminal act involve, where others are limited to determining if a failure of an item was the cause of the fire. The original intent of 921 was to supply information to each of their needs.

I agree, that one first needs to determine the fire was the cause of the act of a person before looking into the fact if this act was criminal. Remember 921 is not only used in the United States. In some countries a person accidently doing an action that causes a fire is a criminal act. When judging the content of the document one needs to look at the total intended audience of the document. There are some states with a statute of Fourth Degree Arson. The states that the failure to control or report a dangerous fire - A person who knows that a fire is endangering life or a substantial amount of another person’s property and fails to take reasonable measures to put out or control the fire, when they can do so without substantial risk to themselves; or give prompt fire alarm commits a crime of arson in the fourth degree. In the UK there is a law state if one’s action destroys or damage property of another is a criminal offense.

The investigator can use motive, means, and opportunity as part of their investigation to identify the person responsible for the fire. This does not need to be the actual person that caused ignition. This investigation is a subpart of the fire investigation for those persons with that responsibility. As mentioned above, this could be involving a fire that is classified as accidental. A fire on a stove, where a person forgot the burner on and walked away, in some location can be a criminal act. It depends on who is using the document and what are their jurisdiction’s laws. As mentioned above, a fire may have resulted from something not in the control of the person being charged. If the person fails to take the proper action, which has nothing to do with the cause of the fire can be charged with arson. All the information needed to make this charge can be found in the actions suggested to be accomplished by an investigator as instructed by 921.

Jim Mazerat
Forensic Investigations Group