Fire technology and Arson

Investigation
Romelyn Ibarrientos Pascua
2016
 Mythology of Fire
• Hephaestus, in Greek mythology is GOD
of Fire and Metalwork, the son of the God
Zeus and Goddess Hera.
• Hephaestus is often identified with the
Roman God of Fire, Vulcan.
 Use of fire in Religious Worship
• Religious devotion to fire as a divine or sacred
element like sun worship, from which it cannot
always be distinguished, the veneration of fire is
one of the earliest forms of religion.
• The flame itself may be the object of adoration,
or it may be regarded as the material
manifestation of a divinity or fire spirit. In almost
every mythology there is an account of the way
fire was brought to humankind.
 Pre-historic Use of Fire
• Thousands of years ago hunter-gatherers people who
lived by hunting and gathering wild food, developed a
number of valuable uses for fire. With they could
remain active after the sun set, protect themselves
from predators, warm themselves, cook and make
better tools.
• People began using fire as a source of light by taking
advantage of the glow of wood-burning fires to
continue their activities after dark and inside their
dwellings, which were usually natural caves. Eventually
people learned to dip branches in pitch to form
torches.
 Early uses of fire by mankind
• The earliest use of fire by humans may have
occurred as early as 1.4 million years ago.
Evidence for this was found in Kenya- a mound of
burned clay near animal bones and crude stone
tools, suggesting a possible human campsite.
However, this fire could have resulted from
natural causes.
• Homo Erectus a species of human who lived from
about 1.8 million to about 30,000 years ago, was
the first to use fire on a regular basis.
• Homo erectus enable to adapt to new environments by
providing light, heat, and protection from dangerous
animals.
• Tending fires probably helped foster social behavior by
bringing early humans together into a small area.
• Fires may have tightened family groups as the families
congregated around a fire to protect their young.
• Homo erectus may have used fire to cook food. The
use of fire became widespread throughout Africa and
Asia about 100,000 years ago. By this time
anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, had
evolved and existed alongside their near relatives, the
Neandertals (Homo Neanderthalensis).
 Fire in Early Civilization
• As early civilization developed, people discovered more
uses for fire. They used fire to provide light, to make
better tools, and as a weapon in times of war.
• Early religions often included fire as a part of their
rituals, reflecting its importance to society. Early myths
focused on fire’s power.
• Keeping a controlled fire burning played a central part
in communal life. Before the invention of modern
weather, usually required much time and labor to let
their fire go out, they had to spend considerable time
to start it again before they could eat and get warm.
• Fire became the center of daily life in the
ancient civilization.
• Fire was essential in metalworking.
 Ancient Greeks’ Use of fire
• The ancient Greeks considered fire as one of
the major elements in the universe alongside
water, earth and air. This grouping makes
intuitive sense
• “YOU CAN FEEL FIRE, JUST LIKE YOU FEEL
EARTH, WATER AND AIR. YOU CAN ALSO SEE IT
AND SMELL IT, AND YOU CAN MOVE IT FROM
PLACE TO PLACE. BUT FIRE IS REALLY
SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. EARTH,
WATER AND AIR ARE ALL FORMS OF MATTER-
THEY ARE MADE UP OF MILLIONS AND
MILLIONS OF ATOMS COLLECTED TOGETHER.
FIRE IS NOT MATTER AT ALL. IT IS A VISIBLE,
TANGIBLE SIDE EFFECT OF MATTER CHANGING
FORM- IT IS ONE PART OF A CHEMICAL
REACTION.”
 Technical Uses of Fire
• By the Neolithic Revolution, during the
introduction of grain based agriculture, people
all over the world used fire as a tool in
landscape management. These fires were
typically controlled burns or “cool fire”, as
opposed to uncontrolled “hot fires” that
damage the soil. Hot fires destroy plants and
animals, and endanger communities.
• The first technical application of the fire may
have been the extracting and treating of
metals. There are numerous modern
applications of fire. In its broadest sense, fire
is used by nearly every human being on earth
in a controlled setting every day.
• Users of internal combustion vehicles employ
fire every time they drive. Thermal power
stations provide electricity for a large
percentage of humanity.
• The use of fire in warfare has a long history.
Hunter-gatherer groups around the world
have been noted as using grass and forest fires
to injure their enemies and destroy their
ability to find food, so it can be assumed that
fire has been used in warfare for as long as
humans have had the knowledge to control it.
Homer detailed the use of fire by Greek
commandos who hid in a wooden horse to
burn Troy during the Trojan war.
• In the First World War, the first modern
flamethrowers were used by infantry, and
were successfully mounted on armored
vehicles in the Second World War.
• In the latter war, incendiary bombs were used
by Axis and Allies alike, notably on Rotterdam,
London, Hamburg and, notoriously, at
Dresden, in the latter two cases firestorms
were deliberately caused in which a ring of fire
surrounding each city was drawn inward by an
updraft caused by a central cluster of fires.
• The united States Army Air Force (USAAF) also
extensively used incendiaries against Japanese
targets in the latter months of the war,
devastating entire cities constructed primarily
of wood and paper houses.
• In the Second World War, the use of napalm
and molotov cocktails was popularized,
though the former did not gain public
attention until the Vietnam War. More
recently many villages were burned during the
Rwandan Genocide.
 Modern Uses of fire
• Fire continues to be a basic, everyday element
of most people’s lives. Any home appliance
that uses methane, propane or oil relies on
fire to operate. These appliances include gas
or oil-fired – but not electrically operated,
water heaters, boilers, hot air furnaces,
clothes dryers, stoves and ovens.
• Many people use wood or, sometimes, coal in
fireplaces or stoves to supplement the main
heating system in their homes.
• In the countryside, people destroy leaves and
brush by burning them.
• \People also make outdoor fires to cook food
in barbecues and over campfires.
• Today, many people enjoy sitting around a
campfire, keeping warm and telling stories,
just as people have for tens of thousands of
years.
 FIRE AND THE ADVANCE OF CIVILIZATION

• As early people began to live in larger

communities and to develop more advanced
technologies, fire became a central part of
their lives.
• Fire continues to be essentials to humans
today, although its presence may be hidden in
gas-fired ovens and furnaces and thus less
noticeable than before.
• Today people naturally focus not on starting
fires but on using fire productively and on
preventing or extinguishing unwanted fires.
We use fire to cook food and to heat our
homes.
• Industries use fire to fuel power plants that
produce electricity.
• At the same time, fire remains a potentially
destructive force in people’s lives. Natural fires
started by lightning and volcanoes destroy
wildlife and landscape.
 CHEMISTRY OF FIRE
• Fire results from a rapid chemical reaction
between a fuel and oxygen. Reactions that
involve oxygen and other elements are called
oxidation reactions.
• Chemist use the word combustion to refer to the
oxidation reaction that produces fire.
• The discovery of fire and how to use it was of
profound importance to mankind. Volcanic
eruptions and fires set by lightning may likely
have aided in this discovery. It took some time to
gain an understanding of the process of
combustion.
 What is a fire?
• It is heat and light from rapid combination of
oxygen and other materials. The flame, w/c
gives the light, is composed of glowing
particles of burning material and luminous
gases. For fire to exist, a combustible
substance must be present, the temperature
must be high enough to cause combustion,
and enough oxygen must be present to sustain
rapid combustion.
• Fire is burning, which is combustion, and
combustion is a type of oxidation reaction.
Oxidation combined chemically with oxygen is
an exothermic reaction, that releases heat
energy. It simply means the active principle of
burning characterized by fuel heat and
oxygen.
 Is fire a matter?
• Matter is anything that has mass and occupies
space.
• The flame itself is a mixture of gases-
vaporized fuel, oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide, water vapor and many other thins,
and so it is matter.
• The light produced by the flame is energy, not
matter. The heat produced is also energy, not
matter.
 What is a Flame?
• It is an exothermic, self-sustaining, oxidizing
chemical reaction producing energy and
glowing hot matter, of which a very small
portion is plasma.
• It consists of reacting gases and solids
emitting visible and infrared light, the
frequency spectrum of which depends on the
chemical composition of the burning elements
and intermediate reaction products.
• The glow of a flame is complex.
• Black-body radiation is emitted from soot, gas,
and fuel particles, though the soot particles
are too small to behave like perfect
blackbodies.
• There is also photon emission by de-excited
atoms and molecules in the gases. Much of
the radiation is emitted in the visible and
infrared bands. The color depends on
temperature for the black-body radiation, and
on chemical makeup for the emission spectra.
 How combustion Occurs?
• Several important factors need to be present
for combustion to occur. The first
requirements are fuel and oxygen. Fuel for a
fire may range from trees in a forest to
furniture in a home to gasoline in an
automobile. The oxygen in the reaction
usually comes from the surrounding air.
• The next requirement for combustion is an
initiating energy source, or source of ignition.
Ignition sources may be in the form of a spark,
a flame, or even a very hot object. The ignition
source must provide enough energy to start
the chemical reaction. Finally, a chemical
chain reaction-reaction that continuously fuels
itself, must occur between the fuel and
oxygen for combustion to take place.
• Flaming fires involve the chemical oxidation of
a fuel- combustion or release of energy, with
associated flame, heat, and light. The flame
itself occurs within a region of gas where
intense exothermic reactions are taking place.
An exothermic reaction is a chemical reaction
whereby heat and energy are released as a
substance changes to a more stable chemical
form-in the case of fire, usually generating
carbon dioxide and water.
Components of a Fire/Elements of fire
• Three components are required for fire, i.e.,
burnable material-a fuel; oxygen; and a heat.
Therefore it is important to understand the
function of each.
– Fuels
– Oxygen
– Heat Sources
 HEAT
• A form of energy generated by the
transmission of some other form of energy, as
in combustion or burning.
 OXYGEN
• A colorless, odorless gas and one of the
compositions of air which is approximately
21% by volume.
– Oxygen Requirements
• 12% no fire
• 14% flash point
• 21% fire point
– Oxygen Sources
• 21% of normal oxygen
• 78% of nitrogen
• 1% of other gases
 FUEL
• Any substance which reacts chemically with
oxygen and produces flames.
– Fuel Sources:
• Solid – molecules are closely packed together
• Liquid – molecules are loosely packed
• Gas – molecules are free to moved
Fire Tetrahedron

fuel
 Elements of Fire Tetrahedron

• There are four elements needed to start and

sustain a fire or flame. These elements are
classified as “Fire Tetrahedron”. These four
elements of the “Fire Tetrahedron” are as
follows;
– Reducing Agent
– Heat
– Chemical Reaction
– Oxidizing agent
 Reducing Agent
• It is the substance or material that is being
oxidized or burned in the combustion process.
The most common fuels contain carbon along
with combinations of hydrogen and oxygen.
 Heat
• It is the energy component of the fire
tetrahedron. When heat comes into contact
with a fuel, it provides the energy necessary
for ignition; causes the continuous production
and ignition of fuel vapors or gases so that the
combustion reaction can continue, and causes
the vaporization of solid and liquid fuels.
 Chemical Reaction
• The self-sustained chemical reaction is a complex
reaction that requires a fuel, an oxidizer, and heat
energy to come together in a very specific way. A
Chain reaction is a series of reactions that occur
in sequence with the results of each individual
reaction being added to the rest.
• This happens in the science of fire, but is self-
sustaining in that it continues without
interruption.
 Oxidizing Agent
• An oxidizing agent is a material or substance
that when the proper conditions exist will
release gases including oxygen. This is crucial
to the sustainment of a flame or fire.
 Other terms related to the Chemistry of Fire

• Heat of Combustion
this is the amount of heat that a fuel will release
during a complete oxidation.
• Ignition
– In order to be ignited, most materials must be in a
gaseous or vapor state. A few materials may burn
directly in a solid state or glowing form of
combustion, including some forms of carbon and
magnesium
• Ignition Temperature
– It is a temperature to which a material must be
heated in order for it to burst into flame, free of
an ignition source such as a spark or match.
• Auto-ignition Temperature
– The lowest temperature at which an oxidation
reaction can self-sustain itself to either flaming or
glowing ignition; that is, the point at which the
reaction changes from endothermic to
exothermic.
• Q Value
– It is the value assigned to the rate of chemical
reaction, e.g., fire at which doubles with every 10
celcius degree or 18 F increases in temperature
• Specific Gravity
– It is the weight of a substance compared with an
equal volume of water, thus water is equal to 1.0
• Spontaneous Combustion
– This occurs if the inherent characteristics of the
materials involved causes an exothermic-heat
producing, chemical reaction to proceed without
any exposure to external source of spark or
abnormal heat.
 Combustion Reactions/Process
• Causes pyrolysis or vaporization of solid and
liquid fuels and the production of ignitable
vapors or gases.
• Provides the energy necessary for ignition
• Causes the continuous and ignition of fuel
vapors or gases to continue the combustion
reaction.