How do firefighters (or investigators idk) find the cause of a fire? Isn’t that super hard if everything is just ash and dust?
In: 694
This is UK based where police investigate and the fire investigator gives their expert opinion on how the fire started and developed.
It’s fairly common for them to say they don’t know, but that there’s no obvious accidental cause. If your fire started in a building with no electric hookup and no residents it’s unlikely to be an accident, even if its just ash. “Don’t know” or “not sure” is fairly frequent as a response, closely followed by “probably”.
However, often a fire won’t entirely destroy a premises. Sometimes there’s spots of burnt carpet indicating dripping accelerant, burnt out fuel bottles, or multiple patches of intense burning in different rooms.
This is out of my expertise but often they will look at, say, a cooker [stove] which is wired in wrong, and based on witness accounts say it probably started there. Usually in a part burned building it really stands out as a completely destroyed unit with loads of damage all around it.
You often have footage or witnesses described masked individuals running to or from the scene, sometimes lobbing ignition devices at the target which is a fairly good indicator lol
Sorry for the essay, I find fire investigation really interesting.
Latest Answers