Page 36 - Insurance Times April 2017 Special Issue on Newindia

Class - D  Removal of valuable objects
Fire involving metal and their alloys Aluminium,  Building over insured
Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium etc.
1. Electrical - (Short Circuit/Overheating/static charge etc) Problems in Arson Investigation:-
2. Mechanical - (Frictional Spark)  Locating witnesses
3. Chemical - (Exothermic Reaction/Incompatible  Locating & preserving physical evidence
Chemical)  Determining whether victim is also the suspect
4. Open flames  Coordinating the investigation between police, fire and
5. Arson insurance agent
 Determining if the fire was arson or some other cause
Common Cause of Electrical Fire:-
1. Short Circuits Collection of Evidence:-
 Agening of Insulating materials  Charred debris and related materials from the origin
 Damage to Insulating materials where the accelerant was placed.
 Poor Design & workmanship  Igniting devices like fuses candles
 Components Failures & Extraneous factors  Samples of dry wall , plaster, wood or other materials
that may have been penetrated by flammable liquids
2. Overheating
 Sample of soil that may have been penetrated by
 Overloading flammable
 Bad/Loose contacts
 Trace evidence possibly left by the arsonist such as
 Corroded joints hairs, clothing fibers, materials etc.
 Poor ventilation  Suspected clothing worn at the time of crime including
 Jamming of motors shoes
 Liquid containing possible accelerants
3. Electrical Sparks
 Flammable dust/gases Packing of Evidence:-
4. Lightning  Use airlight glass containers Seal each collected item
 High Voltage - High current separately and securely
 Seal each collected item separately and securely
5. Static Electricity
 Make all containers with appropriate identifiers
 Belts & Pulleys
 Documents locations from which evidence samples
6. Human Factors were collected by notes/photographs
 Negligence
Common Sampling Errors
 Misuse
 Influencial samples taking samples from the wrong
 Lack of skills
places or materials
 Arson
 Ineffective sample preservation techniques
Circumstantial evidence for Insurance  No comparison samples
Fraud:-  Not maintaining an evidence chain custody
 Presence of Incendiary materials Laboratory Analysis
 Multiple Origin of fire Samples are extracted with suitable solvent and injected
 Suspicious Hours on the gas chromatographs/mass selective detector (GC/
 Holiday fires MSD).
 Vacant Buildings The GC will separate all of the samples substances. The MSD
 Recent departure of occupants will identify the samples substances. 

36 The Insurance Times, April 2017

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