Eli5: how do fire detectives find the start of a large fire? Is it more burnt in that specific area where it started somehow?
In: Chemistry
One time after we put out a wildfire a more experienced firefighter pointed out several signs to me that a small fire in the woods was set intentionally. It was in close proximity to a main road but far enough away that it wasn’t from a chain spark or something and had started at the bottom of a slope, allowing the fire to “run” uphill. Searching around the bottom area he found scraps of fabric that could have been soaked in gasoline to accelerate the process. There were small signs that I would have never caught and were so clear to him, and he wasn’t even a fire investigator.
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