ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 January 1978
Page Count: 6

Accelerant Detection in Fire Residues
Stone, IC
Chief, Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas, Tex.

Lomonte, JN
Supervisor, Regulated Substances Section, and trace evidence analyst, Physical Evidence Section, Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas, Tex.

Fletcher, LA
Supervisor, Regulated Substances Section, and trace evidence analyst, Physical Evidence Section, Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas, Tex.

Lowry, WT
Chief, Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas, Tex.

(Received 25 February 1977; accepted 26 April 1977)

Abstract

In 1975 personnel at the Institute of Forensic Sciences realized that a full range of analytical technics was not being used in the examination of evidence from suspicious fires. Simple steam distillation was followed by infrared spectroscopic examination, but in a distressing number of cases no apparent accelerant was detected. Midkiff and Washington [1] described the use of gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) with headspace sampling, and Cain [2] followed with capillary column GLC. Later Yip and Clair [3] developed a system for identifying trace amounts of petroleum produced from fire debris. As they pointed out, the most common accelerants encountered are naphtha (C⁵ to C⁸ hydrocarbons), gasoline (C⁵ to C¹² hydrocarbons), and fuel oils (C⁸ to C²² hydrocarbons). From work described in these papers, modifications suitable to available instrumentation evolved.

Keywords:

Paper ID: JFS10655J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS10655J
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