Fire Researchers Have Shattered Dozens of Arson Myths in Recent

on a rainy spring morning in eastern Kentucky, Greg Gor- bett prepares to commit arson. His target is a tidy but cheerless Fire researchers one-bedroom apartment with the kind of mauve-colored car- have shattered pet, couches, tables, and lamps you would find in a cheap motel. dozens of arson Gorbett is not the only one eager to see the place burn. A handful myths in recent of other fire scientists and grad students from Eastern Kentucky years. So why University (eku) are checking equipment in the test room as in do American well. They have gathered at the Up eku fire lab, a concrete struc- courts still ture in an open meadow as close to nowhere as possible, to docu- lag behind? ment in exacting detail the life cycle of a blaze. by Douglas Gorbett scans the setup one last time. A foil-covered wire Starr studded with metal probes—a thermocouple array—crosses the ceiling and hangs down the center of the space; it will mea- sure the temperature at one-foot Smoke intervals every two seconds. A radiometer shaped like a soup can will detect changes in radi- ant energy. Bundles of yellow wires will carry the data to a computer-equipped truck sit- ting out back. There is also a man lying on the floor: James Pharr, a former fire investigator from Charlotte, North Carolina, wearing a fire-resistant suit and oxygen mask, who will record the event with a thermal- imaging camera. Gorbett lights a pan of flam- mable heptane under an end table and then quickly exits the room. The fire begins as a glow- ing ball and then reaches up and curls around the tabletop like a claw. Quickly it moves to the adjacent couch, which bursts into flames. Modern cushions are made of polyurethane foam, and despite their fire resis- tant–covering (introduced in Extinguishing a the 1970s to protect against fire that has tran- smoldering cigarettes), they are sitioned through flashover at UNIVERSITY KENTUCKY GORBETT/EASTERN GREGORY basically solidified petroleum. A Eastern Kentucky University. 37 11.2011 modern couch can release the curtain almost to the floor. “Seven upheaval is more than academic. protection engineering firm based of Standards (nbs), which has temperature, pressure, and opac- where intense heat creates par- Custer, a former fire researcher heat equivalent of a 3 million sixty at the ceiling,” calls Hicks. For generations, arson inspectors in Columbia, Maryland. Roby has since become the National ity of escaping gases; the opacity tial burns marked by a charcoal who is now a senior fire consul- watt lightbulb. Fourteen hundred Fahrenheit. have used outmoded theories to testified for several men charged Institute of Standards and Tech- of the smoke; even the weight of residue. The idea had seemed to tant with Arup, an international The fire doesn’t burn the couch The radiometer spikes. help indict and incarcerate many with arson. One, named Michael nology (nist) in Gaithersburg, soot compared with the weight make sense because charring engineering firm. That phenom- so much as melt it, like a marsh- “Flashover!” yells Hicks. suspects. But as new science is Ledford, could not have been Maryland. “Until then, there of the original substance. It was thought to occur in areas enon, called flashover, occurs mallow over a campfire. Flam- A furious orange flame brought to bear on old cases, it at the scene when the fire that really was no fire safety science,” measured so many character- where the fire had burned the when a fire seems to burst out ing liquid drips onto the floor, explodes out the window and is becoming clear that over the killed his son was allegedly set, says Vytenis Babrauskas, who in istics that it became known longest. Babrauskas and his col- a room’s windows and doors. As forming fiery puddles, some of door. The room has gone from past several decades, dozens, according to Roby’s calculations, 1976 became the first American as the Swiss Army Knife of fire leagues found that fire does not a fire in an enclosed space pro- which burn through the carpet. being the scene of a fire to being perhaps hundreds, of people have yet he is now serving a 50-year to receive a Ph.D. in fire science, research. The first calorimeter progress in a linear way, however. gresses, Custer explains, smoke Pharr squiggles out of the room, completely on fire. Everything been convicted of arson based sentence. “It’s amazing to think from the University of Califor- could handle small objects a For a time it grows steadily as it filled with unburned particles dragging his camera. Curtains has ignited—carpet, furniture, on scant research and misguided how long it takes for basic science nia, Berkeley. With the budget to few inches on each side. Later, consumes fuel and oxygen, but and combustible gases accumu- drop burning fragments that in combustible vapors. A few min- beliefs. Many of those people are to be accepted,” Roby says. “I lose hire more than 100 bright young Babrauskas designed a model after a while the fire depletes lates near the ceiling. When the turn start their own flames. The utes later, a crew of firemen still in jail, hoping that someone sleep over this every week.” engineers, including Babrauskas, big enough to test burning fur- the oxygen and begins to die out. smoke layer descends to almost couch across the room catches move in to extinguish it. will take up their cause. nbs began with a fundamental niture, aptly called the Furniture In the absence of air, the energy floor level, a mass of air violently fire, although no other source Afterward Gorbett and his col- “A lot of bad science has been the modern study of fire in question: How do you quantita- Calorimeter. “It was basically a output, also called the heat- rushes in, igniting the entire of fire has touched it. “Radiant leagues walk through the rubble, applied to arson investigation,” America was born in the 1970s, tively measure a fire? big hood with all sorts of instru- release rate, declines. At this flammable mixture. Flames rip

SEVEN MYTHS ABOUT ARSON Fire investigators have long used certain rules of thumb to identify arson. Many have been proved incorrect. 1. Crazing of windows, in which hundreds of cracks 5. Spalling, or surface chipping of concrete, indicates that appear in the glass, indicates rapid heating and means an a liquid accelerant must have been poured on the concrete accelerant was used to start the fire. REALITY: Crazing surface and lit. REALITY: Many factors can cause this is caused by the rapid cooling of window glass, as when effect, including differential expansion between the heated water from a fire hose strikes a hot window. surface and the interior. Accelerant poured on the concrete actually protects it by providing a cool, evaporative surface. 2. Burn marks on the floor indicate that a fire was pur- posely set, because heat rises and fire only burns upward. 6. Alligatoring, the appearance of blisters on the surface It must have been set by pouring a liquid on the ground and of burned wood, points to a fire’s origin. Small, flat blisters lighting it. REALITY: When a fire reaches flashover—the result from a slow burn; large, shiny blisters indicate rapid point at which an entire room ignites—extreme radiant heat heating and hence the use of an accelerant. REALITY: will produce burn marks or even burn holes in the floor. There is no scientific evidence for any such correlation. Both types of blisters can appear on the same burned wall. 3. Melted metals, such as doorway thresholds, indicate that a liquid fire starter must have been used in order to 7. Sharply angled V-pattern burn marks on a wall denote a reach temperatures that exceed their melting points. fast-burning fire that must have been started with a liquid REALITY: Wood fires, especially those that reach flash- accelerant. REALITY: Patterns can result from a number over, frequently exceed the melting point of metals. of factors, including ventilation, air currents, location of fuel, and the materials burning objects are made of. d. s. 4. Burn marks under doorway thresholds or under furniture indicate that a liquid accelerant must have been A typical flashover sequence: A fire starts on a sofa; used to start the fire, since the liquid must have been the fire generates a hot gas layer; the hot gas layer poured and then seeped. REALITY: Post-flashover fires combusts; and finally, everything ignites floor to commonly cause burning under thresholds and furniture. ceiling (flashover), enveloping the room in a blaze.

heat,” Gorbett explains. take photos of the burned furni- says John Lentini, a renowned fire when funding was plentiful and Working at nbs in the early mentation to capture and mea- point, if a window breaks or a across the ceiling, the ener- Bill Hicks, monitoring the fire ture and walls, measure the depth expert who has given exculpatory consumer protection politically 1980s, Babrauskas invented a sure the gases,” he says. door opens, air rushes in and the gy from the fire skyrockets, on his computer in the truck, is of charring, tabulate the results, testimony in at least 40 arson popular. According to a 1973 Nix- device that accomplished that Babrauskas’s invention made fire shoots in that direction with and the whole compartment calling out temperatures over and compare them to other trials cases since 2000. His most recent on administration report called purpose. The cone calorimeter it possible to investigate fire jetlike intensity, causing the heat- becomes engulfed in a blaze. the walkie-talkie. “Five ninety,” he in the experiment. They are not case, now under review, involves America Burning, fires in the resembled a vent hood with a using classical scientific meth- release rate to jump. Researchers The carbon monoxide the fire says, reading the measurement at alone. At laboratories through- a Massachusetts man convicted United States caused more than series of ducts attached to the odology: setting a fire, measuring now know that the deepest char- pumps out can increase dra- the ceiling in degrees Celsius. That out the United States—some of arson by Molotov cocktail, $11 billion in annual damage and top of a small sealed cham- the results, reproducing those ring sometimes occurs not at the matically. Floors burn, and new translates to almost 1100 degrees large enough to contain a three- even though not a single glass took an estimated 12,000 lives. ber. When an object, such as a results, and then repeating the fire’s origin or the location of the fires, many of which are also Fahrenheit. The room is obscured story house—researchers have fragment from the supposed bot- The numbers were later found piece of plastic or wood, was experiment with a new set of most fuel but at the source of capable of deep charring, spon- by a layer of roiling black smoke. been lighting rooms and houses tle bomb was found at the scene. to be exaggerated, but the report burned in the chamber, the variables. Over the next decade, ventilation—the target of that jet. taneously ignite. Liquid accel- A lightbulb pops. The carpet on fire and analyzing the results “I shudder to think how many galvanized Congress to support device measured a range of vari- these and other tools shattered The understanding of such erant, the arsonist’s tool, is far catches fire. The window cracks. with the kind of scientific scru- wrongful convictions there are,” the young field of fire research. ables. It registered the chemical long-standing beliefs about fire. ventilation-controlled fires from the only possible cause. “Better get back,” Gorbett says, tiny that has upended several says Richard Roby, president and As part of that support, Con- composition of the fumes, the The first to go was the assump- helped explain another phe- “In the past, investigators had and we retreat from the window. deeply entrenched misconcep- technical director of Combustion gress created a Center for Fire accumulated energy released, tion that fire always originated nomenon that turned fire inves- a sense that a certain pattern

The smoke layer descends like a tions about how fires behave. The Science and Engineering, a fire- Research at the National Bureau OF NIST COURTESY and the rate of that release; the in the area of deepest charring, tigation on its ear, says Richard meant a certain thing,” Custer

38 39 DISCOVER 11.2011 The following year Lentini had 2004, when the state of Texas was executed, the Innocence to many, the willingham that results from exposure to After Cameron Todd Willingham was executed, the another conversion experience executed a man for a fire that Project, a national nonprofit legal case was a tipping point in the intense heat. “We’re not just concluded that in a fire that became known as almost certainly was acciden- organization focused on over- effort to advance the science of looking at patterns, we’re mea- Innocence Project none of the evidence the Oakland Black Hole. A brush tal. In 1991 Cameron Todd Wil- turning wrongful convictions, arson and bring it into public suring them,” Gorbett says. for arson in the case was scientifically valid. fire swept into that California lingham was accused of setting assembled a team of leading view. At the fire lab in Kentucky, At nist, engineer Dan city, killing more than two dozen fire to a house and killing his arson investigators, who con- Gorbett has been examining Madrzykowski employs a simi- people and destroying more than three daughters. The prosecu- cluded that none of the evidence one piece of the puzzle: how larly painstaking methodol- says. “But post-flashover patterns employees who had set fire to burned and unburned areas that 3,000 homes. Eager to study fire tion relied on all the usual arson for arson in the case was scien- burn patterns might evolve ogy. For the past 22 years he has can have many different sources.” furniture in the ballroom. Quin- suggested a flammable liquid in its natural habitat, Lentini and indicators: crazed glass, charred tifically valid. The project’s law- during a flashover fire. For a been setting fire to bedrooms, Such insights have helped tiere and his colleagues were ulti- had been poured and ignited. a crew of investigators moved in, wood at the floor level, a melted yers later filed an allegation with half-dozen years he and his col- office cubicles, and kitchens, solve crimes. On New Year’s Eve mately recruited to train the atf. But the suspect, who claimed his examining 50 houses for postfire aluminum threshold, and pour the newly formed Texas Forensic leagues have been repeating the all constructed beneath a huge in 1986, a fire broke out in a ball- Since then, other high-profile innocence, said he had no idea patterns. They knew the fire had patterns of a flammable liquid. Science Commission alleging same experiment: furnishing calorimeter. It was during one room at the DuPont Plaza Hotel disasters attracted extensively how the fire started. been accidental, yet they found Witnesses had reported flames professional misconduct by the a room, setting it on fire, and of these experiments a few years in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Within trained scientists with their Given the extensive publicity classic signs of arson: large, shiny exploding out the windows—the fire marshal’s office. The case was then recording the blaze with ago that he and his colleagues minutes it spread to a foyer, expensive technology, but the the case attracted and the fact blisters on wood resembling alli- main indicator of a flashover such an outrageous example of video and electronic sensors stumbled upon a mystery. They then exploded into a second- average fire did not. The typical that the murder charge carried gator skin, chipping concrete, and fire. Scientists and some field junk science in the courtroom until the flashover ends. After were inspecting the charred story casino, killing 98 people. local arson investigator, assigned a possible death penalty, pros- melted metal doorway thresh- investigators, such as Lentini, remains of an intentionally Agents from the fbi and the atf from the police force or the fire ecutors hired Lentini and John olds, all typically attributed to knew that flashover fires could torched living room, built with (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, department, had never taken DeHaan, coauthor of a standard accelerant and accelerant runoff, char wood at the floor level, an open doorway and furnished and Firearms) rushed to the college-level chemistry or phys- fire investigation text, to double- resulting in excessively high heat. melt metal, and create burn pat- with a couch and polyurethane scene and began their investi- ics. He learned on the job, by check and rule out other possibil- Lentini was particularly struck terns that might suggest poured chairs, when they noticed some gation old style, interviewing watching other arson investiga- ities—including the hypothesis by the presence of tiny cracks, or flammable liquid. Yet that infor- V-shaped burn patterns on a wall witnesses and sifting through tors, many of whom had learned that one of the kids, playing with crazing, in the window glass in a mation had not reached or con- behind a chair. According to con- rubble. A couple of days later, the trade from their superiors. matches, had started the fire on dozen houses around the periph- vinced the state’s deputy fire ventional wisdom, the markings two scientists arrived—Harold The misguided notions that a couch. As it happened, two ery, where the firemen had been marshal, Manuel Vasquez (who indicated the chair as the source “Bud” Nelson of the nbs and his older arson investigators sub- doors down from Lewis’s house able to reach with their hoses. died in 1994). In 1992 Willing- of the fire. By then the nist team boss, James Quintiere, a Ph.D. scribed to seemed commonsen- stood a nearly identical structure Crazing was commonly thought ham was found guilty of murder knew better, but they were still who had never been to an actual sical, if you didn’t insist on see- slated for demolition. Lentini to indicate rapid heating and and sentenced to death. stumped: The chair had not been fire scene. At first they were ing lab work to support them. and DeHaan got permission and therefore, once again, the use of Years went by, and Willingham placed near a source of ventila- barred from the scene—atf funds to furnish the house with a fire accelerant. Back at the lab lost one appeal after another. tion, another possible expla- controlled access tightly—but as a rookie arson investiga- the same kind of carpeting and Lentini tested the idea, taking a Finally, in 2004, just weeks before nation for the burn marks. So once they briefed the agents on tor in Marietta, Georgia, John furniture as Lewis’s and wire the dozen samples of window glass Willingham’s scheduled execu- they played with the variables, how their scientific methods Lentini never questioned his place with sensors. Then they lit and heating them to 1400 degrees tion, Gerald Hurst, an internation- building and burning the room could aid the investigation, they training. He once believed the the couch and got out. Fahrenheit in various ways— ally known fire and explosives several times and changing were allowed to look around. old saw that the spalling of Within minutes the living rapidly, slowly, some in an oven, expert from Texas, was brought in the location of the chair and the “Bud had this little computer concrete, in which the surface room had burst into flames, fol- some in an open flame. None of to support a petition for clemency. door. Eventually they noticed with him and began running cal- chipped after a blaze, resulted lowed quickly by the entire house. the samples exhibited crazing, After reviewing the evidence that the V-shaped burn mark culations,” recalls Quintiere, who from the kind of high heat indi- The blaze went up much faster but they all cracked when he and videotapes of the fire scene, would always appear on the wall is now John L. Bryan Professor cating use of a liquid accelerant than investigators imagined was sprayed them with cool water. Hurst wrote a report debunk- opposite the open doorway. of Fire Protection Engineering at and arson. Likewise, he thought possible without an accelerant. Rapid heating did not cause the ing the Vasquez findings, calling It was then that Mad- the University of Maryland. Nel- that only intentional use of a Clearly flashover had occurred. crazed pattern, he determined; them “invalid in light of current rzykowski realized his group son would collect data from the flammable liquid could explain After the fire Lentini and DeHaan rapid cooling did. In other words, knowledge.” Hurst said the blaze had uncovered a new phe- scene, like the room dimensions walls with burn marks resem- found the same patterns on one of the classic indicators of was almost certainly accidental, Firemen and engines in front of the National Exchange Bank after the nomenon in fire behavior. As and the quantity and identity of bling a sharp-angled V or the the floor that prosecutors had arson—one that had been used perhaps caused by a faulty space great Baltimore fire of 1904. the fire is burning and smoke burned materials. To that data charring of a floor. thought indicated arson in Lewis’s countless times in court to send heater or electrical connection. descends toward the floor, cool he added known mathematicalA That was before Lentini was house. But rather than being pro- suspects to prison—was prob- But even that would be difficult that it was the subject of sev- each experiment they enter air rushes in through the bot- values for the combustion char- called to work on a case in Jack- duced by a liquid, the markings ably caused by firemen spraying to prove, because the house had eral newspaper investigations, the burned room and scruti- tom of the open doorway. It acteristics of the materials, and sonville, Florida. In 1990 pros- had been burned into the floor by water on hot windows. been shoveled out by investiga- a major story in The New Yorker, nize the furniture, floors, walls, then races across the floor and he fed all that information into ecutors charged Gerald Wayne the radiant heat released during Lentini became a science tors. The cause of the fire should and a pbs Frontline documentary. and ceilings. Their investigation mixes with unburned gases, his computer, which simulated Lewis with setting a house fire flashover. The experiment, which convert, but most of his con- have been labeled “undeter- Last spring, seven years after his has been exhaustive. Instead of causing them to ignite. And so the progression of the fire. His that killed his pregnant wife, became known as the Lime Street temporaries did not. Year after mined,” Hurst said, because there death, a special state commis- just looking at the visible burn a classic V-pattern appears in mathematical reconstruction her sister, and her sister’s four Fire, stunned everyone, and pros- year, poorly trained police or was no evidence a crime had sion concluded that the forensic patterns on walls, for instance, a location that had neither fuel worked so accurately that each children. The fire showed all the ecutors dropped the charges. fire department officials con- actually been committed. evidence in Willingham’s case they photograph them and use nor ventilation. stage of it matched the recollec- classic signs of arson, includ- “That case opened my eyes,” Len- tributed to faulty convictions. The Texas Board of Pardons was deeply flawed but failed to a probe to map calcination— Last year Madrzykowski and tion of witnesses. Eventually the ing “pour patterns” on the floor: tini recalls. “I was ready to send The most notorious such case and Paroles disagreed and denied address whether the original fire the dehydration and subse- his colleagues, along with the

agents arrested three disgruntled demarcation lines between Lewis to the electric chair.” reached a tragic conclusion in BETTMANN/CORBIS the petition. After Willingham inspector had been negligent. quent crumbling of wallboard Chicago Fire Department and

40 41 DISCOVER 11.2011 representatives from the atf, The human body has proved people talking about crazed glass Although it has used Willing- tion Association, a professional replicated those results in con- another valuable source of evi- or using the most damage as an ham’s story to press for changes group of fire fighters and safety demned town houses near Chi- dence. Richard Roby and col- indicator of the source. One can in policy, even the Innocence engineers, have been publishing cago’s O’Hare airport. They fitted leagues have used toxicology only hope that in ten to twenty Project does not take on arson a set of standards and proce- the two-story town houses with reports from the bodies of fire years we get trained scientists convictions in court since they dures that many courts recog- generic furnishings and lit a fire victims to help determine where doing these investigations.” cannot be overturned with dna. nize as a gold standard in arson next to the living-room sofa. a fire originated, what stage it A few states are pushing for Some other investigative prosecutions. Law enforcement By opening and closing differ- reached, and how long it burned. higher standards. In New Hamp- groups are trying to pick up the agencies in some states seem ent windows on different floors, Not all fire-related deaths are the shire, anyone who wants to slack. Local innocence projects to be taking a more nuanced they were able to manipulate same. Victims who collapse away become a fire investigator for the in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, approach to arson analysis. airflow to make it look as if the from a fire generally die from car- state fire marshal’s office must Indiana, Nebraska, California, In Massachusetts, the per- fire had started at a wide range bon monoxide, which, pumped earn a two-year associate’s degree and several other states are pur- centage of building fires deter- of spots, even the opposite end of out in great volume by flashover in fire science or a related field, suing arson appeals. mined to be arson has dropped the room from where it actually fires, can kill in just a few breaths. take an intensive training course, Three years ago, a few faculty from more than 15 percent in began. “You’ve got to get away But victims who die close to the and continue supervised on-the- from this thought that the site fire perish either from edema job training sessions for at least a of the most damage is where the (heat-caused swelling of the air- year. Yet the problem is not lim- In Indiana, someone who earns a living fire began,” Madrzykowski says. ways) or heat exposure, in which ited to investigators. Despite legal spying on can be Scientists continue to discover the organs shut down “like a precedents that courts should cheating spouses new fire clues. At several labs, super heatstroke,” Roby says. evaluate forensic data as a prov- certified to testify in arson cases after investigators are examining the Roby has been creating com- able, quantifiable, peer-reviewed burn patterns resulting after they puter models of his findings science, many judges remain a couple of weeks. pour a range of flammable liquids in the hope they will one day unconvinced. One scientifically on floor surfaces, including vinyl, make their way into the court- trained investigator, who asked wood, carpet, and concrete, and room. One case that could ben- not to be identified, testified last members at the John Jay College the early 1990s to less than 2 set them ablaze. In some cases, efit involves a woman who died winter at the appeal hearing of of Criminal Justice in New York percent in 2009. In Texas the they have found, a flammable liq- in a trailer fire last year in West a man who had been convicted set up a national clearinghouse proportion of fires labeled incen- uid actually protects a floor from Virginia. Neighbors thought of murder and arson based on a for arson appeals and began col- diary has declined by more than bursting into flames because the they saw her boyfriend, who pour pattern on the floor, with no lecting dossiers from prisoners half in the last decade. Nation- liquid shields it from radiant heat. had recently been released from Engineer measures a lab fire to confirmatory laboratory results. around the country. Once they wide, according to the National At Hughes Associates, a Balti- prison, set a gasoline fire in an see whether he has successfully Preparing for the case, the inves- completed their review, they Fire Prevention Association, the more-based fire science and engi- outside corner of the trailer. But replicated prior fires used for tigator replicated the man’s floor planned to submit the files to number of intentional structure neering firm, senior engineer Dan Roby has another theory. While fire pattern experiments. using the same kind of rug and attorneys to take to court. “We fires declined by about 51 per- Gottuk was struck by one experi- the autopsy showed low levels of horsehair carpet pad. He then had about 20 cases that met our cent between 1990 and 2007, ment in which he compared burn carbon monoxide in the wom- carpet, athletic shoes, and tooth- he has run more than 600 com- entrenched in arson investigation. reproduced the same pattern in criteria for deficiency in science,” the most recent year for which patterns left by a liquid-fueled fire an’s blood, it also revealed exten- brushes all contain petrochemi- mercial products through a gas Most states have no legal require- his tests without using a flam- says Peter Diaczuk, a forensic statistics are available—from to those left by a melting polyure- sive thermal injuries in her air cals. Even a straightforward anal- chromatograph and mass spec- ments for a person to become a mable liquid. The judge denied scientist at the college. But the 111,900 incidents to 54,700. thane couch. “We showed that in passages and lungs. This meant ysis for gasoline is complicated trometer to record their molecu- fire investigator, although they the convict’s appeal anyway. “I philanthropy that supported the Some of that decline result- many situations you really can’t that she must have been close to by the fact that it varies from lar signatures and uploaded the prefer him or her to take in-per- don’t want to see arsonists go project, the jeht Foundation, ed from a change in account- tell the difference,” he says. the fire source. Since the woman manufacturer to manufacturer results to an online database. son or online training courses free,” said the investigator, “but I had invested its money with ing procedures, but the trend was a smoker, Roby speculates and batch to batch. Investigators Investigators who log on can and pass rudimentary tests. In certainly don’t want to see inno- Bernard Madoff. The foundation indicates that better science other investigators are that a smoldering cigarette may must precisely identify the com- compare chromatographs pro- some states, including Indiana, cent people going to jail.” went bankrupt, and last summer is beginning to produce better studying arcing—a phenomenon have set her bed on fire and pound and show that—unlike duced in their labs from fire scene a private investigator’s license is the project collapsed. “I think justice. “Investigators will have that occurs when a fire is hot caused the damage documented lighter fluid in a convenience samples with those in a reference enough to give you legal author- reversing an arson case is we were on the brink of mak- to be willing to make the effort,” enough to melt the insulation off in the autopsy report. store—it would not normally be collection of flammable liquids. ity to investigate a fire and testify notoriously difficult, much more ing an important contribution” Gorbett says. “We’re all going to the electrical wiring in the walls. Assembling such elements found at the scene. If they find a match, or a near about its origins. In other words, so than, say, a rape or murder to freeing potentially innocent have to work harder to get better At places where the insulation can help investigators under- That is where chemist Michael match, Sigman can send them a someone who makes his living case that involves dna. Analyz- prisoners, says Diaczuk. “Unfor- data to make a change.” between two wires chars, current stand where a fire began and Sigman of the National Center for sample so they can analyze both spying on his clients’ spouses ing dna with modern techniques tunately for some of them, now can leap from one wire to the how it progressed, but even with Forensic Science at the University liquids on their own lab equip- in hotel rooms can become an can produce definitive proof it’s as if we never existed.” Douglas Starr is codirector of next and melt the metal. This in current technology, determining of Central Florida comes in. With ment. This provides strong foren- expert in fire analysis after an of the suspect’s innocence. In Despite some setbacks, the graduate program in Science turn can sever the wire or cause what started a fire—and whether his colleagues, he has been accu- sic evidence that can form the optional training period of just contrast, scientists can testify Gorbett and other fire scien- and Medical Journalism at Boston a circuit breaker to trip, cutting liquid accelerant was used— mulating the data to help inves- basis of expert testimony in court. a couple of weeks. “It’s still the that an arson investigation was tists remain optimistic that University. His most recent book, The Killer of Little Shepherds: off electricity. Since unpowered remains challenging. One con- tigators identify flammable liq- “It’s preferable to saying, ‘This is Wild West out there,” says Justin done poorly, but rarely can they the results of their research A True Crime Story and the Birth wires cannot arc, mapping these founding factor is that we live in uids at fire scenes. As one of the how it smells,’ ” says Sigman. McShane, a Harrisburg, Pennsyl- definitely rule out arson as the are beginning to take hold. For of Forensic Science, is now out breaks can give a general idea of a petroleum-rich environment: overseers of the Ignitable Liquids Despite the surge in fire sci- vania, attorney who has defended source of the blaze, which is almost a decade, scientists work- in paperback. Othe fire’s progression. furniture, building materials, Reference Collection Database, ence, pseudoscience remains OF NIST COURTESY many arson cases. “You’ve still got often required to win an appeal. ing with the National Fire Protec- 42 43 DISCOVER 11.2011