Fire Investigation 11
Fire Investigation 11 : (3) The New Science of Post-Flashover Burning: There were, apparently, six investigators who ruled the origin "undetermined" based on the fact that they did not turn in a response for the 70-second post-flashover fire, and 17 investigators who declined to select a quadrant of origin when the fire had burned for 3 minutes beyond flashover. Of those 53 investigators who did respond, the twenty-five percent (25%) who got the quadrant of origin correct. While this is a better result than the 6% obtained in Las Vegas, it was no better than would be expected if the investigators had chosen the quadrant of origin at random. Further, there are those who would argue that 69% correct or even 84% correct are low numbers, when one is using those determinations to either send people to prison, or to deny them coverage under their insurance policy. What these results show is a failure of the infrastructure for training fire investigators. Exercises conducted at fire investigation seminars historically have used short-lived fires, extinguished before flashover, to help investigators "recognize arson". This kind of training is no longer acceptable. What these results also show is that fire investigators and the people who employ them need to be prepared to accept the reality that sometimes the best answer that can be obtained is "undetermined," if either an accidental or an incendiary call is not supported by conclusive evidence
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