Explosives and w nr 1 1 1 ~ cT CO LO CO 00 CD o t— CN CO 2 LO CD r^ r— T— t— tm mm -amt j '*% ■ $ > i <■ Jte i i i 1 1 , 1 1 V * | * Daniel H ; f fc. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/careersinexplosiOOOOharm S ■ i , A, Careers in Fbrensics □caniel fc. Harmon SOMERSET CO. LIBRARY BRIDGEWATER, N.J. 08807 rroosen psublieshingns central New York Published in 2008 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. 29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010 Copyright © 2008 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. First Edition All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harmon, Daniei E. Careers in explosives and arson investigation / Daniel E. Harmon. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Careers in forensics) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4042-1346-3 (library binding) 1. Arson investigation—Vocational guidance. 2. Arson investigation. 3. Arson. 4. Explosives. 5. Explosions. 6. Criminal investigation—Vocational guidance. I. Title. HV8079.A7H37 2008 363.25'964—dc22 2007035107 Manufactured in the United States of America On the cover: A team effort: investigators at the scene of a fatal 2004 fire in Kentucky include a state police arson specialist, a fire marshal, a utility inspector, and a state trooper. Contents Introduction 4 Chapter 1 When Fire Becomes a Force of Evil 8 Chapter 2 The Many Tasks of SSgr Forensic Fire Examiners 19 Chapter 3 Special Preparation for a Special Career 30 Chapter 4 Forensic Careers in Arson and Explosives Investigation 3< Chapter 5 An Open Career Field 48 Glossary 56 For More Information 57 For Further Reading 59 Bibliography 60 c rime scene investigation (CSI) has been a hot topic with Hollywood producers in recent years. Their television serials have generated a frenzy of interest in forensic science careers. Young people want to be like those CSI champions: §|jp tv'|pp| men and women who triumph in scientific chess games against the cleverest criminals. Fascinating careers in forensic investigation truly are available. They usually aren't nearly as glamorous as the small screen would lead you to believe. But they are rewarding indeed. The job involves, in many ways, a "scientific chess game" between defenders of the law and doers of evil. To expose and defeat the bad guys in real life, though, you may spend a lot more hours and days . . . and weeks . . . and months . . . than the television stars spend doing tiresome, thankless work. You will be frustrated, poring over tiny details that lead to dead ends. And after you've successfully reconstructed the details of a crime, you probably won't get to accompany the cops who have the satisfaction of arresting the criminal. Some of television's fictitious CSI programs involve arson and deadly explosions. In real life, too, there is a need for \ 4 Actor Adam Rodriguez plays the role of crime lab detective Eric Delko in the popularTV series CSI: Miami. In this scene, he probes a suspicious stunt car fatality. trained forensic arson and explosives investigators. These are professionals who can trace a criminally set fire or explosion from its smoldering destruction back to the exact spot of the first whiff of smoke. What, exactly, is arson? The federal Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program describes it as, "any willful or malicious [spiteful or harmful] burning or attempting to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc." 1 5 Careers in Explosives and Arson Investigation A bored teenager's summertime "prank" of torching a remote, abandoned building is a fire-related crime. So is a money-strapped restaurant owner's decision to set fire to his kitchen, hoping to persuade insurers it was an accident. So is a terrorist group's plot to blow up a jetliner in midair. Arson is believed to be the leading cause of nonresidential fires. The UCR Program relates that in 2005, 67,504 arson offenses were reported by almost 14,000 agencies in the United States. The average loss in property value was almost $15,000. One somewhat bright statistic from the UCR study is that there were 2.7 percent fewer reported arson offenses in 2005 than in 2004. Arson investigators have two immediate objectives: (1) to determine exactly where, at the scene, the fire began and (2) what caused the fire to ignite. Explosives investigators need to know the same fundamental information as they probe the destruction of buildings, airplanes, and cars. During their investigations, arson and explosives experts must always keep in mind a crucial possibility—that the fire or explosion may have been accidental. They examine fire marshal and manufac¬ turer records that might suggest that the building or vehicle was at risk. They review emergency services and law enforcement reports that may document previous fires on the premises or similar explosions in similar circumstances. Their objective is not to prove a fiery disaster was a crime. They simply want to learn the truth. 6