NCJ Number
174860
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 64 Issue: 3 Dated: March 1997 Pages: 17-22
Date Published
1997
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article describes arson investigation techniques.
Abstract
Arson accounted for 21.6 percent of the estimated $8.9 billion in property damage that resulted from fires in 1995. Arson investigation is so important that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has created four on-call emergency response teams that can be ready to investigate within 24 hours. The Bureau maintains a cadre of certified fire investigators who are veteran agents and who go through 2 years of intensive training. They are qualified as experts to testify in Federal court as to the origin and cause of fires. The accelerant detection dog is one of their biggest assets in evidence collection, and the ATF assists in training dogs to a standard for local use. The most recent identification standard is for doing gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. This technique may supplement evidence provided by burn patterns and confirm that a fire was arson. The article includes a source list for information on arson investigation and a comprehensive list of arson investigation tools and equipment.