Arson Investigations in Residential Structure Fires

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Arson Investigations in Residential Structure
Fires

• Christopher C. Janssen
• State Fire Marshals Office
• East Region/ Rockport
• Fire/ Arson Investigation Division
• Tommy Hubertus
• State Fire Marshals Office
• K-9 Division/ New Braunfels
• Fire/ Arson Investigation Division

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Objectives

• Students will have better understanding of the
  State Fire Marshals Offices Fire and Arson
  Investigation Division and its responsibilities
• Students will participate in a case study
  involving an incendiary fire of a residential
  structure

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Objectives Continued

• Students will be able to recognize various signs
  of intentionally set fires in residential
  structures
• Students will be able to identify investigative
  techniques in post investigations

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History of the State Fire Marshals Office

• Formed in 1910
• Initial purpose to investigate fires
• Todays divisions include
• Fire Industry Licensing Services and
  Investigations, Fire Safety Inspections, TexFirs,
  Fire Prevention Outreach and Fire/ Arson
  Investigation Division

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Fire/ Arson Investigation Division

• Fire/ Arson Investigations
• Investigations
• K-9
• Forensic Arson Laboratory
• Firefighter fatality investigations
• Hotline number [phone]
• Tips Line [phone]

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Fire/ Arson Investigation Division Continued

• Investigators are peace officers
• Requested by law enforcement agencies, including
  Police Departments, Sheriffs Offices,
  Constables, Department of Public Safety, Texas
  Forrest Service, Texas Alcohol Beverage
  Commission and the Texas Parks and Wildlife

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Fire/ Arson Investigation Division Continued

• Requested by Fire Departments
• Requested by Community Leaders
• Requested by Insurance Agencies
• Conducts fire investigations to determine cause
  of fire
• If Incendiary, will conduct a criminal
  investigation to determine responsibility
• Then will file charges with appropriate court

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Residential Structure Fires Statistics

• According to the U.S. Fire Administration
• 414,000 residential structure fires were reported
  in the nation
• 2,895 deaths
• 14,000 injuries
• 7,546,000,000

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Residential Structure Fires Statistics Continued

• According to TexFirs Fires in Texas 2007
• 16,398 residential structure fires
• 95 civilian deaths and 523 civilian injuries
• 272 fire service injuries
• 280,101,017 in property loss.
• Of the 16,398 residential structure fires
• 1,043 residential structure fires were determined
  to be incendiary/ suspicious
• 10 civilian deaths and 38 civilian injuries
• 44 fire service injuries
• 19,921,334 in property loss.

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Residential Structure Fires Statistics Continued

• Of the 16,398 residential structure fires
  reported to TexFirs
• 6,752 residential structure fires had an
  undetermined cause
• 48 civilian deaths and 209 civilian injuries
• 156,918,241 in property loss.

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CASE STUDY
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Case Study

• Fire reported at a residence at 126 AM by a
  neighbor
• Fire Department and Sheriffs Office personnel
  responded an found the southwest bedroom fully
  engulfed.
• Sheriffs Office requested the State Fire
  Marshals Office to investigate

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Case Study Continued

• Information from Sheriffs Office
• Residence was vacant at the time of the fire
• Two previous burglaries reported at the
  residence.
• During one burglary, I Love you. Please come
  back was scribed into the flat panel television.

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Case Study Continued

• Interview of the owner (Mr. Johnson)
• Mr. Johnson was renovating structure and was not
  living at the residence
• Utilities were disconnected weeks before the
  fire
• Mr. Johnson left the residence at 800 PM
• No Insurance

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Case Study Continued

• Interview of the Future Occupant (Mrs. Jones)
• Owners (Mr. Johnsons) daughter
• Was at residence with another male attempting to
  get money from husbands friend
• Left residence at 800 PM
• Had another male (Mr. Smith) stalking her who
  admitted to performing one burglary
• Had just finished decorating bedroom
• Husband out of town for work.

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Case Study Continued

• State Fire Marshal Investigators examine the
  residence
• The damage is concentrated to the bedroom
• Damage greater toward the area on and around the
  bed
• Back door window screen cut and window in open
  position
• Nothing appeared to be missing from the
  residence
• Second area of origin in kitchen where backpack
  was burned on the floor.

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Case Study Continued

• No latent prints located at the scene
• No indications from Canine
• During post investigation
• Investigators learned that husband met and became
  friends with stalker suspect (Mr. Smith) of Mrs.
  Jones.
• Husband and Mr. Smith committed burglary at
  another residence

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Case Study Continued

• Items stolen from other residence stored at this
  residence
• Mr. Smith admitted to Mrs. Jones that he had
  broken into residence and scribed into her
  television. He also told her that he loved her
• Mrs. Jones and husband go to dinner out of town.
  
• While gone, their residence was burglarized with
  several items taken (gun, money and drugs). Also
  it is believed that the items taken from the
  other burglary were also taken from Mrs. Jones
  residence
• Husband goes to Mr. Smiths residence looking for
  stolen items including items taken from other
  burglary

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Case Study Continued

• Husband steals Mr. Smiths fathers wallet
• Husband uses Mr. Smiths fathers credit cards
  and gets arrested
• The items that were stolen from the other
  residence were believed to have been taken back
  by the husband
• Mr. Smith is the suspect in the fire and is
  believed to have set the fire when attempting to
  get the stolen property back.

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RED FLAGS
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Red Flags in Residential Structure Fires

• Condition of the residential structure
• Vacant
• Under renovation
• For sale or rent
• Run down
• Time of Fire
• Items stolen or missing from structure
• Easily pawn items (i.e. televisions, DVD players,
  etc.)
• Personal property

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Red Flags in Residential Structure Fires
Continued

• Clean broken glass from window on inside of
  residence under fire debris
• Forced entry into doors
• Irregular shaped burn patterns
• Usually on floor
• Gasoline containers in or around residence
• Document level of liquid in container
• Submit sample of liquid to lab
• Odor of ignitable liquid emitting from
  residences interior

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Red Flags in Residential Structure Fires
Continued

• Other available materials inside residence
• Charcoal
• Chopped wood
• Large amount of paper/ books
• Fabrics
• Other available materials
• Location of fire
• On exterior
• Usually on walls or under residence

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Red Flags in Residential Structure Fires
Continued

• Location of Fire continued
• On the interior
• Usually in bedroom
• Beds are targeted by spouses or significant
  others
• Can be in other rooms (i.e. living rooms,
  staircases, garages)
• Trailer pattern on ground
• Leading to door of residence

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Red Flags in Residential Structure Fires
Continued

• Items exaggerated in Proof of Loss form
• Smaller televisions found then what was claimed
• Less property located in residence than what was
  claimed
• Previous burglaries reported at residence
• Juveniles using residence as hang out
• Gang activity in area
• Some gangs use fires as introduction into gang

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Red Flags in Residential Structure Fires
Continued

• Check for Latent prints
• Exterior (If applicable)
• Doors, cabinets, broken glass, burglar tools
• Gasoline containers
• Any other evidence
• Document contents
• Appliances, furniture, clothing or items missing
• Graffiti in or around residence
• In neighborhood
• In residence

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Red Flags in Residential Structure Fires
Continued

• Document entire residence
• Unburned portions for extra fuel or containers
• Condition of rooms that were minimally damaged
• Document area of origin
• Walls, ceiling and floor
• Available materials or irregular shaped burn
  patterns within room(s)
• Eliminate all possible ignition sources
• Required to determine Incendiary cause

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POST INVESTIGATION TECHNIQUES
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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Statements are critical
• Written or recorded
• Interview of Owner/ Occupant
• Problems with residence
• Payment history
• Repair history
• Last time at the residence
• What they were doing at the residence
• Alibi
• Contents of residence
• Condition of residence

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Interviews of witnesses
• Person that discovered/ reported fire
• Neighbors to the scene
• Firefighters/ Police Officers
• What they observed
• Location of fire in residence
• Any history at residence
• Persons seen at or near residence
• Any history of neighborhood or town

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Interviews of witnesses continued
• Alibi witnesses
• Determine if owners/ occupants story is true
• Determine relationship with owner/ occupant
• Contents of residence
• Last time they had been at the residence
• Timely interview is important
• Preferably done in person

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Interviews of witnesses continued
• Realtor (if applicable)
• Knowledge of residence
• Previous prices of residence
• Length of time on the market
• Condition of residence when they purchased it
• Identity of realtor that owner/occupant used to
  initially purchase residence

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Interviews of witnesses continued
• Repairmen/ Contractors
• History of work performed
• Nuisance work
• Condition of residence
• Family members
• Problems with residence
• Owners/ occupants problems (professional and
  personal)
• Conversations with owner/ occupant

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Interviews of witnesses continued
• Friends/ co-workers
• Conversations with owner/ occupant
• Work history
• Financial problems
• Relationship problems
• Desire of moving
• Insurance Agents
• Changes in policies
• New policy

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Get elimination fingerprints from owner/
  occupants
• Obtain cellular phone numbers for call records
  and eventually cell site information
• Cell site information
• Has to be more than fifteen miles from known area
• Problems encountered with prepaid cellular phones

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Motive for owner/ occupant set residential
  structure fires is usually money
• Owners/ Occupant financial information
• Changes in insurance coverage or new policies
• Previous claims on residence
• Including homeowner policy
• Lender information
• Payment history
• Tax information

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Owners/ Occupants Job History
• Loss of job
• Demotion in job classification
• Divorce
• Fighting over property
• Owner living outside means
• Expensive residence
• Will loose money if sold at market price
• Interest only loans (balloon loans)

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• Motives for other persons to set residential
  structure fires
• Gangs
• Some use fires as initiation
• Claiming territory
• Getting attention
• Crime concealment
• Burglary, murder, sexual assault, etc.
• Angry friends/ spouses
• Feuding neighbors

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Post Investigation in Arson Investigation

• National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB)
• Will assist with previous claim history on
  residence
• Can provide previous claim history on owner/
  occupant
• Can be a liaison between insurance companies and
  law enforcement

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State Fire Marshal K-9 Accelerant
Team

• Instructor
• Tommy Hubertus
• 512-417-7227
• 512-305-7900

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Objectives

• Understanding the K-9 Team
• Understanding how the K-9 Team works
• Knowing what a K-9 Team can do for you
• Knowing when to call a K-9 Team
• Knowing what to do before and after calling a K-9
  Team.

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There are only four State Fire Marshal K-9 Teams
in the State
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Handler Clint WIlliams in Fort Worth
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Handler Tommy Pleasant and Tess in Corpus Christi
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David Rives and Saxon in Caldwell
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Handler Tommy Hubertus and Buddy in New Braunfels
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Buddy in Port A
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Training

• We are allotted 16 hours a month minimum to
  train.
• Training is very important to a good K-9 Team.
• Public presentations and demonstrations is a form
  of training.
• Handling a canine takes a lot of time and effort.

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Heavy

• Heavy
• Diesel
• Transmission Fluid
• Kerosene

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Medium

• Medium
• Gum Spirit Turpentine
• Ultra Pure Lamp Oil
• Gasoline (fresh)
• 50 Evaporated Gas
• 75 Evaporated Gas
• Charcoal Lighter Fluid
• Paint Thinner

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Light

• Light
• Paint Remover
• Coleman Fuel
• Acetone
• Lacquer Thinner

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Clothing line up demo in C.C.
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Sit and stair
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The reward and play
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Can line up at the State Capitol
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The sit and stair
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Publicity
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Worked cases

• I worked over 100 fire scenes from 09/01/2005 to
  08/31/2006.
• We do not do full blown investigations
• We are only mainly for the fire scene exam.
• With being on over 100 fire scenes, the travel
  involved, the care for the canine, there is not
  much time for anything else.

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How the canine works

• The canine is purchased overseas
• We get them from a vender in Alabama
• The canine is trained on odor for 5 weeks before
  we get it
• The canine is placed with the handler and they
  train for an additional 5 weeks

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How the canine works

• The canine uses its nose.
• The canine smells in parts per million and
  billion.
• The canine works for the reward.
• The canine has a passive alert. Sit and stair.
• The canine knows when he finds the source of the
  odor its toy will pop out.

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How the canine works

• There are four drives prevalent in SFMO canines
• Hunt
• Air scent
• Retrieve
• Prey

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How the canine works

• There are many uses for the canine in today's
  work and play environment

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How the canine works

• Work dogs
• Pet dogs
• There is a difference

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How the canine works

• The work dog works. That is all he wants to do.
  He wants to find the odor and get his toy and
  play.
• He is born, bread and raised this way.
• However he will still be just a dog when he wants
  to.

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• The team can assist you with the fire scene exam.
• Safety
• Diagram
• Documentation
• On scene interview
• Fire debris removal
• Evidence location and collection.

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• Fire scene examinations should not be undertaken
  alone. A minimum of two individuals should be
  present to ensure that assistance is at hand if
  an investigator should become trapped or injured.
  If it is impossible for the investigator to be
  accompanied, he or she should at least notify a
  responsible person of where the investigator will
  be and of when he or she can reasonably be
  expected to return. 

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• The main reason for the K-9 team on a fire scene
  is evidence location and collection.
• Some handlers will tell you where to pull the
  sample.
• Some will pull the sample and send it to the lab
  themselves.

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• When a canine/handler team is used to detect
  possible evidence of accelerant use, the handler
  should be allowed to decide what areas (if any)
  of a building or site to examine. Prior to any
  search, the handler should carefully evaluate the
  site for safety and health risks such as
  collapse, falling, toxic materials, residual
  heat, and vapors and should be the final arbiter
  of whether the canine is allowed to search.

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• It should also be the handlers decision whether
  to search all of a building or site, even areas
  not involved in the fire. The canine/handler team
  can assist with the examination of debris (loose
  or packaged) removed from the immediate scene as
  a screening step to confirm whether the
  appropriate debris has been recovered for
  laboratory analysis. 

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• Properly trained and validated ignitable liquid
  detection canine/handler teams have proven their
  ability to improve fire investigations by
  assisting in the location and collection of
  samples for laboratory analysis for the presence
  of ignitable liquids. The proper use of detection
  canines is to assist with the location and
  selection of samples. 

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• In order for the presence or absence of an
  ignitable liquid to be scientifically confirmed
  in a sample, that sample should be analyzed by a
  laboratory. Any canine alert not confirmed by
  laboratory analysis should not be considered
  validated. 

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• Research has shown that canines have responded or
  have been alerted to pyrolysis products that are
  not produced by an ignitable liquid and have not
  always responded when an ignitable liquid
  accelerant was known to be present. If an
  investigator feels that there are indicators of
  an accelerant, samples should be taken even in
  the absence of a canine alert. 

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• The canine olfactory system is believed capable
  of detecting gasoline at concentrations below
  those normally cited for laboratory methods. The
  detection limit, however, is not the sole
  criterion or even the most important criterion
  for any forensic technique. Specificity, the
  ability to distinguish between ignitable liquids
  and background materials, is even more important
  than sensitivity for detection of any ignitable
  liquid residues.

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• Unlike explosive- or drug-detecting dogs, these
  canines are trained to detect substances that are
  common to our everyday environment. The
  techniques exist today for forensic laboratories
  to detect submicroliter quantities of ignitable
  liquids, but because these substances are
  intrinsic to our mechanized world, merely
  detecting such quantities is of limited
  evidential value. 

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• Current research does not indicate which
  individual chemical compounds or classes of
  chemical compounds are the key triggers for
  canine alerts. Research reveals that most classes
  of compounds contained in ignitable liquids may
  be produced from the burning of common synthetic
  materials.

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• The proper objective of the use of canine/handler
  teams is to assist with the selection of samples
  that have a higher probability of laboratory
  confirmation than samples selected without the
  canines assistance. 

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• Canine ignitable liquid detection should be used
  in conjunction with, and not in place of, the
  other fire investigation and analysis methods
  described in this guide. 

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• Location of evidence
• Sometimes there will be an indication where we
  would not think to pull a sample
• The K-9 will go to the strongest source of the
  odor
• Contents legs at floor level
• Door jambs and base plates
• Under decks in the dirt

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What the K-9 team can do for you

• A quicker search, fewer and more accurate samples
• Because the K-9 has a stronger sense of smell he
  will go to the odor
• The Investigator may only look at the burn
  patterns and pull from experience
• May pull more samples than is needed

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Knowing when to call a K-9 Team

• Get accurate information from the requestor
• Contact the owner and find out what was in the
  structure.
• Contact local Police

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Knowing when to call a K-9 Team

• The requestor will give you general knowledge
  about the fire
• What type of structure and use
• Date and time
• Weather conditions
• Utilities
• Any suspicious activity

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Knowing when to call a K-9 Team

• The owner can give you information about what was
  in the structure.
• Storage of ignitable liquids
• Chemicals

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Knowing when to call a K-9 Team

• The Police can give you history about the address
• Calls for service
• Type of calls
• Drug activity
• Disturbances
• Burglaries
• Other fires in the area

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Knowing what to do before the K-9 team arrives

• Do what you need to do to prepare for your
  examination.
• Exterior photos
• Diagram
• Interviews

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Knowing what to do before the K-9 team arrives

• Fire debris removal
• Remove the roof and or tin
• Remove the larger fire debris
• Large timbers
• Large ceiling joist

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Knowing what to do before the K-9 team arrives

• The K-9 needs access to the areas where there
  might be an ignitable liquid
• The most obvious places would be the floor
• Door ways
• Furniture

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Thank You
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Questions?