Use of damage in fire investigation: a review of fire patterns analysis, research and future direction

Fire investigators have historically relied upon damage as a means to conclude where a fire originated. This review evaluates the historical and current literature on the topic, with a specific emphasis towards the research conducted over the past 80 years related to fire patterns. The concept of fire patterns for this review has been broken into four components that better assist in evaluating their effectiveness in determining an area of origin. The first component evaluated is the ability to assess the varying degree of fire damage along the surfaces of the compartment and contents. Next, the ability to identify clusters of damage was evaluated. Interpretation of the causal factors for the generation of the fire patterns was next appraised. Finally, the availability of processes using fire patterns in determining an area of origin was assessed. This deconstruction of the problem provides a gap analysis of the current processes and identifies areas where future work is needed. A seven step reasoning process for evaluating damage for determining the area of origin, along with a new definition for the term fire pattern is proposed.