STUDY OF ACCELERANT RESIDUES IN FIRE REMAINS

• NCJ Number: 334
• Author(s): B V ETTLING; M F ADAMS
• Date Published: 1968
• Length: 14 pages
• Grant Number(s): OLEA-010
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Corporate Author: Washington State University
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

RESULTS OF A STUDY TO DETERMINE AMOUNTS AND KINDS OF HYDROCARBONS EXTRACTED FROM CHARRED MATERIALS.

Abstract

A VARIETY OF WOOD, TEXTILES AND PAPER WERE SUBJECTED TO BURNING TESTS IN COMMON ACCELERANTS SUCH AS GASOLINE, FUEL OIL, KEROSENE OR VARIOUS PROPRIETARY PRODUCTS USING HYDROCARBONS AS A CARRIER OR SOLVENT. A COMPREHENSIVE TABLE ON THE ANALYSIS OF MATERIALS AND THEIR CHARS IS INCLUDED IN THE REPORT. THE TYPICAL CHROMATOGRAMS ARE EXHIBITED FOR VAPORS FROM WOOD BURNED WITH FUEL OIL, RESIDUE FROM FABRIC BURNED WITH NO ACCELERANT; RESIDUE FROM WOOD BURNED WITH GASOLINE AND RESIDUE FROM WOOD BURNED WITH FUEL OIL. LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS SHOW RELATION OF DISAPPEARANCE OF ACCELERANT WITH DURATION OF BURNING. TABLES ARE GIVEN ON THE RESULTS OF COTTON BURNED WITH GASOLINE BY VAPOR ANALYSIS AND CHAR ANALYSIS. THE REPORT CONCLUDES THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT FINDING WAS THAT THE AMOUNT OF HYDROCARBONS IN THE CHAR DOES NOT NECESSARILY INDICATE ADDED ACCELERANT. GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY IS THE BEST MEANS TO CHARACTERIZE ACCELERANT RESIDUES OR VAPORS FROM CHAR.