REVIEWER IN CDI 106

ARSON INVESTIGATION

Arson - willful and malicious burning of all kinds of buildings and structures including personal property.
Investigation - process of inquiry conducted in order to determine what is needed to know and proven.

COMPOSITION OF INVESTIGATION TEAM

1. Team Leader - assumes overall control of the fire scene.
2. Lead Fire Arson Investigator - coordinates with the team leader regarding appropriate
investigation approach.
3. Fire Scene Photographer - photographs the fire scene prior entry of the investigation team and
during walkthrough.
4. Fire Scene Sketch Preparer - diagrams and illustrates the immediate area of the fire scene.
5. Evidence Recovery Personnel and Custodian - conducts actual exhaustive search of probable
pieces of evidence with the direct guidance of the Team Leader and Lead Fire Arson Investigator at
the fire scene.
6. Team Security Personnel - ensures the overall security and safety of the investigation team.
7. Incident Command Post - the designated area for planning and communication point members of
the Fire Arson Investigation.

What constitutes Arson?

Burning - there must be some burning or charring.

Willfulness - intentional and implies the act was done purposefully.

Malice - denotes hatred or will or a desire for revenge. Deliberate intention of doing unjustified harm for
the satisfaction of doing it.

Motive - moving cause which induces the commission of crime. Sometimes that leads or influences a
person to do.

Intent - purpose or design with which the act is done and involves the will. An essential element of crime,
motive is not.

STAGES OF COMMITTING ARSON

a) Attempted Arson - it is not necessary that there be a fire before the crime is committed.
b) Frustrated Arson - when a person has taken steps to commit arson, but the act is not completed
due to some intervening factor.
c) Consummated Arson - when a person successfully completes the act of arson and causes damage
or destruction of property.

Pyromania - uncontrollable impulse of a person to burn anything without motivation.

Pyromaniacs - usually do not run away from the fire scene, usually alone and feel satisfied watching the
flame.
TYPES OF PYROMANIACS
1. Abnormal Youth - epileptics, imbeciles and morons may set fire without knowing the seriousness
of the act.
2. The Hero Type - a person may set fire on a building, subsequently pretends to discover it and turn
in the alarm so that he will appear a hero to the public. A person may burn a building and endeavor
to achieve a spectacular rescue in order to attract the attention of spectators.
3. Alcoholics and Drug Addicts - persons who subject themselves to intense artificial stimulants such
as narcotics sometimes develop a strong urge toward incendiaries.
4. Sexual Deviates - some sex perverts, derive sexual stimulation from setting a fire and watching the
flame. Frequently, he is chronic masturbator who stimulates and enhances his sexual gratification
by means of arson.

What is point of origin?

In arson investigation, point of origin is the source, the beginning and the exact place where an
unfriendly fire originates. In other words, at what particular place in the building the fire started. The
arson investigator must concern himself with the point of origin at the fire scene because it is the point of
origin that will tell him the cause of the fire.

Factors to be considered in determining the Point of Origin:

I. Interviewing Witnesses - firefighting personnel, the occupants, the discoverer of the fire, the
passerby and others. These witnesses will give testimonies to facts that cannot only pinpoint the
origin of the fire but they can also provide information relative to the fire in its incipient stages.

II. Low Point of Burning - the lowest point of the burning should be given first consideration when
locating the point of origin of the fire. The single most significant fact that assists the investigator is
that fire normally is burn upward.

III. Charring Pattern - the lowest point of burning will indicate a deeper char.

CORPUS DELICTI - it is the body of the crime or the fact that injury or loss was sustained by reason of the
crime committed. In arson case, it encompasses the fact that the building/property in question was
burned. The mere confession of a person with respect to burning is not sufficient proof of guilt unless the
Corpus Delicti has been established. There must be burning and criminal design.

Fire Scene - is the location in which the fire occurred. It is also the central location of a fire from which
subsequent investigate efforts will begin.

Preserving the Crime Scene - means to keep the site of the fire in the same physical condition as it was
left by the perpetrator. To prevent obliteration, deterioration and destruction of tangible clues and to
preserve evidential value of physical evidence.

USE OF LADDERS
 Ladder - is a vertical or inclined set of rungs or steps.

TYPES OF LADDER
1. Rigid Ladders - can be leaned against a vertical surface such as wall.
2. Rope Ladders - hung from the top.

EXAMPLES OF LADDERS
1) Fixed Ladder - two side members joined by several rungs; affixed to structure with no moving parts.
2) Hook Ladder - a rigid ladder with a hook at the top.
3) Trestle Ladder - an “a frame” style ladder.

4) Extension Ladder - a fixed ladder or more lengths for more convenient storage; the lengths can be
slid together for storage or slid apart to expand the length of the ladder.

5) Turntable Ladder - an extension ladder fitted to the rotating platform on the top of a fire truck.

LADDER TERMINOLOGY

1. Bed Ladder - the lowest section of an extension ladder.

2. Fly Ladder - the upper section of an extension ladder.

3. Butt - the bottom end of the ladder.

4. Heel - the part of the ladder that touches the ground.

5. Halyard - a rope or cable used to raise the fly ladder

6. Pawl and Dog – the mechanism located at the end of the fly ladder that locks to the bed ladder.

7. Rung – the cross member of the ladder that is used for climbing.

8. Top or tip – it is the top part of the ladder.

9. Guides – light metal strips of an extension ladder that guides the fly ladder while it is being raised or
lowered.

Why arson is very hard to investigate?

 Arson is one of the most difficult offenses to investigate because the arsonist is able to set a fire and
can escape undetected.

 The fire can consume the scene and destroy much physical evidence of the offense.

 Harder forms of evidence are often buried in debris and grossly altered in appearance.

What constitute burning?

 The mere fact that a building is scorched or discolored by heat is NOT SUFFICIENT nor will bare
intention or even an attempt to burn a house amount to arson, if no part of it is burned.

 Yet, if there is actual ignition of any part of the building, arson is committed, although there be no
flame or the fire immediately goes out of itself.
BASIS LIABILITY OF ARSON

 Kind and character of the building, whether of public or private ownership.

 Its location, whether in an uninhabited place or in a populated place.

 Extent damage caused; and

 The fact of its being inhabited or not.

MOTIVE CAN BE ESTABLISHED BY:

1. To Profit

 Fire is set for material gain

 Most common motive of arsonist. (CLE -0414)

 Insurance Fraud

2. Concealment of Crime

 The arsonist may set fire to a building in order to conceal a projected or past cime.

 He may wish to divert attention in order to loot the burning premises or steal in other places.

 The burning may be for the purpose of destroying evidences.

3. Punitive Measures

 An arsonist may use fire as a means of punishing another person for reason of jealousy,
hatred or revenge.