Fire investigation is the application of science and engineering to determine the origin and cause of a fire. Fire investigators interpret burn patterns and other fire signatures to determine where a fire started (origin) and how it was initiated (cause). If arson is suspected, samples of fire debris can be collected for laboratory analysis to test for the presence of accelerants such as gasoline. Due to fire investigation's inherently interdisciplinary nature, fire investigators must be knowledgeable in fire dynamics, heat transfer, combustion, chemistry, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics. Often, a fire investigator will reconstruct the fire time line using computer fire modeling in conjunction with forensic evidence collected at the fire scene, witness accounts of the fire incident, and the fire department report.

In the United States, fire investigators follow NFPA 921 "Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations".

Back to Reax Engineering fire litigation support services