ELi5: How do firefighters and investigators find out what caused a house fire after its already burned to ashes?
In: Other
They don’t.
They make educated guesses based on fires with known ignition sources and from fires done in controlled conditions.
So basically they look for clues and compare those clues to previous situations that match. This isn’t definitive and their reports and conclusions should be taken with a healthy dose of salt, as with all crime scene investigation techniques.
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