A Morphological Study of the Burn patterns of Flammable Liquids in Arson Investigations

Abstract

The determination of the involvement of liquid fuel is very important in fire investigations. However, it is very difficult to obtain a positive result through chemical analysis of the debris collected at fire scenes as liquid fuel burns or evaporates completely after fires. Determining whether liquid combustibles are involved in fire patterns is equally difficult because of various interference factors. The melting-burning of thermoplastic plastics is one such interference factors. In this study, we studied the characteristics of the fire patterns of liquid combustibles in arson investigations and the melting-burning of thermoplastics. We expect that the results are highly confident as diffusion of the melting-burning thermoplastic plastics flows consistently in the direction of gravity. Additionally, as liquid hydrocarbons involved in arson are intentionally poured and spread in places such as the thresholds, these traces may provide the investigator a higher degree of confidence to determine the cause of the arson. Keywords: Fire Investigation; Liquid Pattern, Thermoplastic, Arson