Monthly Archives: November 2017

There has been a lot of debate in fire investigation industry recently regarding Arc Mapping.  NAFI’s mission is to increase the knowledge and improve the skills of persons engaged in the investigation and analysis of fires, explosions and arsons, or the litigation that ensues from such investigations. The opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinion and beliefs of NAFI. Over the next three weeks, we will be sharing different views on Arc Mapping with our members and the industry – it is up to you to draw your own conclusions.

Week 1 – Arc Mapping: New Science or New Myth?
Week 2 – Arc Mapping as a Tool for Fire Investigations
Week 3 – Arc Mapping: A Review of Findings

Abstract
The ATF Laboratory recently issued Special Bulletin No. 2 which offered a series of objections to the arc mapping review presented by this author earlier this year. This paper reviews the original research findings and explains the context of these findings. It then addresses in detail the comments made by ATF, and further addresses the concerns about arc mapping as currently used in the field. It reaffirms that the original findings are correct. It also shows that a new “ellipse” method proposed by the ATF for origin determination from arcing locations is not technically sound.

Download the complete paper here

Analysis of Post-Fire Characteristics of Portable Oil Filled Room Heaters to Determine Pre-Fire Orientation

K. Scott Barnhill, PE
Investigative Forensic Specialists, PLLC

Presented at the International Symposium on Fire Investigation Science and Technology, 2014

ABSTRACT
A portable oil filled room heater is a steel vessel typically with 5 to 8 fins containing approximately 3 to 4 liters of mineral oil. The mineral oil acts as the heat transfer fluid that is heated by an immersed electric heating element. The outward appearance of an oil filled heater is that of an old steam radiator.

An oil filled heater (OFH) exposed to full room involvement conditions will commonly display fire effects to include: rupture of the vessel’s spot welds, localized wavy deformations to the fins in the unwetted regions of the vessel, and differential deformation of the vessel’s fins. This study addresses the post-fire characteristics of oil filled heaters exposed to full room involvement conditions in two burn cells. A primary focus of the study is to determine if the pre-fire orientation of the oil filled heater can be determined by analysis of the post-fire appearance. A description of the dynamics that occur between the wetted and unwetted surfaces when the vessel is exposed to full room involvement conditions is discussed.

Analysis of an OFHs’ post-fire characteristics, to include vessel dimensions and wavy deformations, compared to the burn cell experiment results, allows an investigator to accurately interpret the normal reaction of an OFH to full room involvement as well as to determine its pre-fire orientation (upright or otherwise).

Download the complete paper here

There has been a lot of debate in fire investigation industry recently regarding Arc Mapping.  NAFI’s mission is to increase the knowledge and improve the skills of persons engaged in the investigation and analysis of fires, explosions and arsons, or the litigation that ensues from such investigations. The opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinion and beliefs of NAFI. Over the next three weeks, we will be sharing different views on Arc Mapping with our members and the industry – it is up to you to draw your own conclusions.

Week 1 – Arc Mapping: New Science or New Myth?
Week 2 – Arc Mapping as a Tool for Fire Investigations

ATF Fire Research Laboratory Technical Bulletin
Arc Mapping as a Tool for Fire Investigations

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this Technical Bulletin is to address statements that are contained in Arc Mapping: New Science or New Myth?, which was presented at the Fire and Materials Conference in February 2017. The paper’s interpretations and analysis of the published literature, the limitations it places on the process of arc mapping, and the conclusion that arc mapping is applicable to less than 1% of fire scene investigations are misleading. This bulletin addresses some of these issues.

Download the entire technical bulletin here.

There has been a lot of debate in fire investigation industry recently regarding Arc Mapping.  NAFI’s mission is to increase the knowledge and improve the skills of persons engaged in the investigation and analysis of fires, explosions and arsons, or the litigation that ensues from such investigations. The opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinion and beliefs of NAFI. Over the next three weeks, we will be sharing different views on Arc Mapping with our members and the industry – it is up to you to draw your own conclusions.

Week 1 – Arc Mapping: New Science or New Myth?
Week 2 – Arc Mapping as a Tool for Fire Investigations
Week 3 – Arc Mapping: A Review of Findings

Vytenis Babrauskas
Fire Science and Technology Inc., San Diego, CA
Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA

ABSTRACT
Arc mapping was first introduced in the 2001 edition of NFPA 921 and was subsequently expanded so that in the recent editions it constitutes one of the four main methods for determining the origin of a fire. Careful consideration of engineering principles and large-scale experimental studies on the subject indicates that the relevance and prominence of arc mapping as a leading indicator of fire origin is greatly overstated. The technique is valid and applicable only in some very limited scenarios. Yet it has seen very extensive use in recent years by investigators preparing fire reports. In many cases, such attempted use of arc mapping is based on incorrect and invalid hypotheses, which are often implicitly assumed to be true instead of being explicitly stated. The following are myths: (i) An abundance of arc beads at a given locale means that fire originated in that area, while a paucity of arc beads indicates that it did not. (ii) When multiple arcs are present on a circuit, the direction of arcing will necessarily proceed upstream towards the power source. (iii) If an appliance is the victim of a fire, internal arcing will be primarily near the exterior of the unit, while arcing deep inside indicates a fire origin at that place. NFPA is urged to revise NFPA 921 to eliminate arc mapping as one of the four main methods for establishing fire origin, and to subsume it under the more general category of “fire patterns.” In addition, it is important that NFPA 921 reduce the implied general utility of the method and provide more explicit information on its interpretation and its limitations and on the circumstances under which it may be a valid method for assisting in the determination of the fire origin.

Download the complete paper here