Abstract
Aim: The purpose of this report is to familiarize officers, who perform duties at fire incidents, with a selected practical example. It is intended to make officers aware of the volume of evidence, biological and other, which can be overlooked. The evidence, just like a mute witness, can provide information about an incident. However, information can be lost through inadvertence during rescue and firefighting operations and imprudence during post incident inspections. An intermediate aim is to reveal potential errors, which can be avoided, identified by a technical working group of Inspectors. Avoidance of such errors could significantly improve the quality of future investigation findings.
Introduction: In spite of different reasons for the cause of a fire, it should be understood that rescue activity will ultimately bring firefighters into contact with live people, corpses and human remains. The latter two may be preserved in a poor condition, culminating with difficulties in establishing individual identities. This case illustrates where apathy in the performance of duty may have caused difficulties with attempts to establish objective facts, despite availability of information about the existence of at least 1 person, who was burnt in the house fire.
Methodology: At the initial stage a suitable location involving a fire outbreak was identified. It was a location with easy access for firefighting and rescue operations. At the second stage a description of firefighting activities was produced and was accompanied by a post incident site inspection. At this point it was realised that, despite information concerning incident operations, the presence of human remains were ignored. A later inspection of the fire incident site revealed a degraded and dismembered human body. Next, the collected evidence was analyzed and its utility determined for use in resolving areas of doubt.. With the aid of deduction methods, some conclusions were reached about methods and effects as well as reasons for flawed procedures adopted during the site inspection. The final stage of deliberations established how erasure of relevant evidence constrained detection and research investigation.
Conclusions: The article attempted to demonstrate that suitably focussed post incident investigations may, at later stages of proceedings, lead to effective utilisation of preserved evidence as well as provide an explanation of circumstances. A sensibly developed preparatory process, based on not so easy to see biological evidence, but aided by current genetic potential, leads to identification of individuals associated with incidents. However, it is important to maintain a disciplined approach to the process. Presentation of this incident is intended to make people aware of undesirable consequences associated with incompetent performance.
Keywords: fire, firefighting, high temperature, fire incident site, examination, evidence, human remains, unknown body, genetic testing, criminal version
Type of article: case study