Fire and Arson Investigation

Topic 12

EVIDENCE

ARSON - It is the intentional or malicious destruction of property by fire.

The Legal Aspect's of Arson/ Fire Investigation:

1. It is the concern of the fire investigator to prove malicious intent of the offender.
Intent must be proved, otherwise no crime exists.
2. The law presumes that a fire is accidental, hence criminal designs must be shown.
3. Fire caused by accident or criminal design must be shown.
4. Fire caused by accident or negligence does not constitute arson.

Basis of Criminal Liability in Arson:

1. Kind and character of the building burned;

2. Location of the building;
3. Extent of value of the damage;
4. Whether inhabited or not.

Destructive Arson is committed by burning of the following

1. Any arsenal, shipyard, storehouse, military installation, powder or firework factory,

ordnance, storehouse, archives or general museum of the government;
2. Any passenger train or motor vehicle in motion, or vessel out of ports;
3. In an inhabited place, any storehouse or factory of inflammable or explosive
materials; and
4. Any theatre, church, cockpit arena, or other buildings where meetings are held, when
occupied by numerous assemblage.

Other forms of Arson

Setting fires to any buildings, farmhouse, warehouse, hut shelter, or vessel in port,
knowing it to be occupied at the time by one or more person/s;

Building burned is a public and purpose is to destroy evidence kept therein to be used
in legislative, judicial or administrative proceedings, irrespective of the damage, if the
evidence is to be used against the dependant of any crime punishable under existing law;

Burned building is a public and the purpose is to destroy evidence kept therein to be
used in instituting prosecution for punishment of violators of law, irrespective of the amount
of damage.

Arson of Property of Small Value (Art. 323. RPC)

Elements
 1. Burning of any uninhabited hut, storehouse, barn, shed, or any other property;
2. Value of property does not exceed twenty-five pesos (25.00).
3. Under circumstances clearly excluding all danger of the fire spreading.

Crimes involving Destruction

Offender causes destruction by any of the following means:

1. explosion;
2. discharge of electric current;
3. inundation, sinking or stranding of a vessel;
4. taking up the rails from a railway track;
5. malicious changing of railway signals for the safety of moving train;
6. by using any other agency or means of destruction;
7. destroying telegraph wires and telegraph post or those other communication
system.

Article 325 RPC

Burning of ones own property as a means of committing Arson. This article punishes
the burning of one's own property for the purpose of committing arson or great destruction
of property.

Article 326 RPC

Setting fire to property exclusively owned by the offender. This article provides the
purpose of the offender to:
• defraud or cause damage to another, or
• damaged is actually caused upon another's property even such purpose is absent, or
• thing burned is a building in an inhabited place.

PD. No. 1613 - Amending the Law on Arson

Special Aggravating Circumstances in Arson

1. If committed with intent to gain;

2. If committed with the benefit of another;
3. If the offender is motivated by spite or hatred towards the owner or occupant of
the property burned;
4. If committed by a syndicate (three or more persons).

Prima Facie Evidence of Arson

1. If the fire started simultaneously in more than one part of the building or
establishment;
2. If substantial amount of flammable substances or materials are stored within the
building not necessary in the business of the offender nor for household use;
3. If gasoline, kerosene, petroleum, or other flammable or combustible substances

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 or materials soaked therewith or containers thereof, or any mechanical, electrical,
chemical, or electronic contrivance designed to start a fire, or ashes, or traces of
any of the foregoing are found in the ruins or premises of the burned building or
property;
4. If the building or property is insured for substantially more than its actual value
at the time of the issuance of the policy;
5. If during the lifetime of the corresponding fire insurance policy more than two
fires have occurred in the same or other premises owned or under the control of
the offender and/or insured;
6. If shortly before the fire, a substantial portion of the effects endured and stored in
a building or property had been withdrawn from the premises;
7. If a demand for money or other valuable consideration was made before the fire
in exchange for the desistance of the offender or for the safety of the person or
property of victim.

Legal Requirements in Preserving Physical Evidence in Arson

1. Admissibility of the Object or Substance: It requires full accounting of the object

or substance from the scene of the fire to the court.
2. Admissibility of the results of Laboratory Examinations.
3. Qualification of Technician
4. Safeguarding of the samples during analysis
5. Result of the examination

Interpretations of the Findings (to be made in non-technical language):

1. Interview and Interrogation;

2. Time and Place of questioning;
3. Interviews of firemen, neighbors, person who discovered the fire, insurance agent,
insured person and other person who has direct connection regarding the burned
property;
4. Interrogation;
5. proof of the existence of the fire;
6. to establish jurisdiction of the court;
7. Corpus Delicti;
8. Proof for incendiary origin of the fire;
9. Proof of the guilt of accused.

Searching for Evidence

The safest procedure is for the investigator to start at the top of the heap and carefully
removing the objects one by one, laying them aside until reaching the bottom where he will
find the "pot of gold", the evidence.

Steps in Tracing the Origin of Fire and Searching for Evidence

1. External/ Outside Survey - careful conduct of inspection to the burned building

2. Internal/ Inside Survey enter the building to correlate the same with the outside
survey of the structure in question
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 3. Locate the point of origin of fire, the ceiling area must be checked first

Look for Prima Facie Evidence of Arson

1. Entering the Building: When entering the building, the investigator should
observe the following:
2. Look for mark on doors and windows not burned for possible indication of
forcible entry.
3. Notice whether the intruder has discarded tools used for forcible entry.
4. Notice unusual arrangement of the building content.
5. Stocks or substitution of stocks, new expensive stocks have been removed,
substituted by second hand or old stocks.

Guidelines in the Investigation of Arson:

I. Arrival and Observation

Arrival
• observe person/vehicle leaving the area
• characteristics of person/ vehicle leaving the area
• unusual road/ street condition
• barricade showing the progress of response
• vehicle parked in such a manner as to create obstruction to the fire scene.

Observation
• identify the person who called the fire department
• first person who leave the fire scene
• did the fire occur during or after business hour?
• Was it during daytime or night time?
• Condition of traffic in the area.

II. The Fire Scene:

Protecting the Fire Scene

• Cooperation of the firemen and the Police
• Assignment of guards

Mechanics of Search
• Planning
• Sifting of the Debris
• Location of the point of origin of the fire
• General Rules/SOP's

Collecting and Preserving of Evidence

• Photography
• Sketching
• Assistance of Qualified Experts
• Handling of Physical Evidence

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 • Forwarding of Physical Evidence

III. Post Investigation

Methods
Among the most likely method to be used by investigators are the recording of the
facts noted at the fire scene, sketches and photographs as well as statements taken from the
witnesses. And other sources of information that maybe useful in developing the
investigation and completing the reports, fire inspection reports and financial reports.

All notes should be thorough, accurate, detailed and neat so that they are easily to
transcribe and / or read. They will readily assist in correlating observations and developing
leads. These notes are the principal basis of all reports the investigator makes and submits.

The Fire Investigation Report

It is the final written results of taking notes, recording observations and interviewing
witnesses. It includes the written results of the construction and size of the burned structure,
what the firemen observed and encountered upon their arrival at the fire scene, the color of
the smoke and flame, and the intensity and location of the fire.

Inventory of Evidence

As the evidence is collected and marked for identification purposes, it should be

entered on some type of inventory sheet. In all cases, it will improve the admissibility of
evidence by establishing chain of custody necessary to prove during the trial on an arson
case.

Reference:

Bustria, Leo (2006). Fire Behavior and Arson Investigation.

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