The Career Of A Fire Investigator

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It was once said by Sherlock Holmes, “When someone thinks their house is on fire, their first instinct is at once to rush to the thing which they value most.” When Arthur Conan Doyle wrote this, he meant that even though people know that they’re in danger, they try to grab their prized possessions and take them to safety. There is a career that solves this problem of whether the fire was kindled by accident or not. The career of a fire investigator is to discover how the fire was ignited, by what, and the form of fire. This profession is important to society because these professionals determine, explore, and document the origin and cause of the fire, helping to prevent insurance fraud and arsonists from getting away with a crime. A fire/arson…show more content…
The first thing that fire investigators do when arriving at a scene they observe the fire and scene conditions. While doing this they take photos and not touching anything so they won’t contaminate the scene. Then exercise the scene safety, for example, using the hydrocarbon detector to check if the crime scene is healthy or not. After analyzing if the scene is safe to examine, they would evaluate the scene by contacting the first responders and establish presence, define the scene’s boundaries, identifying and interviewing witnesses, assess scene security at the time of the fire, and identify the resources required to process the scene. After evaluating the scene, fire investigators document the scene, which is taking photos or videotaping the scene and describing and documenting the scene. During documenting the scene, these professionals describe the patterns on walls, windows, or doorframes where it shows the fire’s direction of movement (Forensic). Fire patterns are in a shape of a V. The bottom of the V is where the fire started and the upper part of the V is where the fire starts to spread upwards (Stemler). Finally, investigators complete the investigation by releasing the scene to other departments, for example, the police department. They…show more content…
Michael Puzan was charged with arson in the second degree, insurance fraud in the third degree, and falsifying business records in November 07, 2002. Puzan and his girlfriend had the idea to burn their portion of the duplex home with gasoline. “Ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $33,158.20 to United Frontier and County Way Insurance Companies, who insured the building and other personal contents of other occupants in the building at the time of the fire” (Warsaw). Michael Puzan had to pay $33,158.20 to insurance companies, who insured personal items and the building he and his girlfriend tried to burn. Michael Puzan was caught by fire investigators who were contacted by the insurance companies. When arriving at the fire scene, fire investigators photographed everything; a 360-degree angle picture was taken before entering the scene. Fire investigators learned that gasoline was poured just on the portion of the duplex home where Puzan and his girlfriend lived and there were no prized possessions found that belonged to the couple in the scene. Fire investigators interviewed witnesses who were present at the time. After collecting all evidence that was found they were sent to trial to testify against Puzan by using what they found at the scene. Fire/arson investigators testified what was used to start the fire and the action of the fire. This piece of evidence got
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