Fire scene investigation is not easy for a team to perform. This is not your team of forensics who come into a crime scene and figure out how a person was murdered. Fires leave a mess and the entire scene has to be gone through with a fine toothed comb to figure out what happened.
But, fires also leave a lot of evidence. Even though fires can destroy everything, investigators know how to look through the fire damage to find the exact cause. Whether it’s a house or a mountain, they are very good at finding the “Origin,” which is an area where the fire was started. Then, they find the “Point of Origin,” which is a more exact location within the Origin.
For instance, if a fire was started that burned up an area of a park, the Origin might be the size of an acre. The Point of Origin might be a lamp that was fueled by kerosene. Not everything’s that easy. The fire could also be someone’s cigarette or a match they lit.
If the fire came from a house, the Origin would be a room. The Point of Origin would be a faulty wire or a spark from the fireplace. But, the science is the same and a team of investigators can pin point it.
A fire in the woods was set by a glass bottle that reflected light from the sun. That’s how good fire investigators are. They were able to determine that it wasn’t a campfire or someone’s cigarette, but a freak science accident between the sun and what acted like a magnifying glass.
It’s definitely a science and it’s not fully figured out yet. But, investigators are in the advanced stages of inspecting fire scenes. When they gather their evidence, they are going to know exactly how it was caused and then it’s just a matter of time until they figure out who caused it.
