CDI 106

Fire Protection and Arson Investigation

Fire Investigation - the basis of fire prevention programs. The observations of

everyone involved at the fire scene, particularly the firefighters who responded and will
be able to shed light on the nature of the fire, its progress and so forth.

Fire Investigation is concerned with the following:

● Cause - that which made the fire start; and
● Reason that which led to the cause of fire. ( a motive leading to the
action )

Four General Classes of Fire Causes:

1. Natural Fire - caused naturally without human intervention or aid

2. Accidental Fire - fire causes where human action is involved directly or indirectly
3. Arson - fire causes as a result of the wilful and criminal action of some person
4. Unknown Fire - fires which are not classified as to cause.

Person/s Responsible to Examine and Inspect the Fire Scene

1. Fire Marshall
2. Fire Chief
3. Assistant Chief for Technical Service
4. Fire Inspector responsible for specific building
5. Senior Fire Officer at the fire scene
6. Photographer
7. Utilities Personnel ( particularly electrician)

Basic Steps in Fire Scene Investigation

1. Search Systematically
2. Observe
3. Take Photographs
4. Work by Process of Elimination
5. Check and Verify

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 6. Take Note
7. Draw Diagrams

Laws on Arson
● Article 320 - 326 of the RPC - defines arson, its forms and penalties.
● PD 1613 - the law amending the law on arson; defining the prima facie evidence
of arson.
● RA 7659 - An act to impose Death Penalty on certain heinous crimes.
● RA 9346 - abolished RA 7659
● RA 6975, sec 54- provides that the fire bureau shall have the power to
investigate all causes of fire
● RA 9514- known as the “Revised Fire Code of the Philippines of 2008”

ARSON
● Is a crime against persons or property.
● The wilful and malicious burning of another's property or the burning of one’ own
property with intent to injure or defraud the insurer of that property.

Attempted Arson

● It is not necessary that there be a fire before the crime is committed.

Frustrated Arson

● The fact of having set fire to some rags and jute sacks soaked in kerosene oil
and placed near the partition of the entire soil of an inhabited house should not
be qualified as consummated arson, in as much as no part of the house had
begun to burn.

Consummated Arson

● The offender did in fact set fire to the roof of the house and said house was
partially burned. The consummation of the crime of arson does not depend upon
the extent of the damage caused.

What Constitutes Arson?

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 1. Burning
2. Willfulness
3. Motive
4. Malice
5. Intent

Most Common Motives of Arson:

1. Insurance Fraud. This offense normally involves burning of one's own property to
wrongfully collect ( defraud ) insurance money for the loss, by fire, of the insured
company.
2. Grudge and Spite Fires. An individual seeking to revenge a wrong, either real or
fancied, may attempt to injure or to cause hardship to the person who causes the
wrong.
3. Fires to cause Public Disturbances. An offender may resort to arson as a mens
of causing a public disturbance.
4. Sabotage Fires. saboteur's most effective wapons.
5. Fires to Conceal other Crimes. A criminal may attempt to cover another crime
with fire; he may reason that the burning will appear accidentally and will destroy
the evidence of the original crime.

Fire Setters
1. Sexually excited by hatching the fire
2. Uses fire as a defense, setting firs during a period of enforce sexual abstinence
3. Uses fire setting as a total sexual substitute, to free fire setter from undesirable
sexual habit.

Pyromania- the uncontrollable impulse of a person to burn anything without any

motivation.

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Types:

1. Abnormal Youth - Epileptics, imbeciles and morons.

2. Hero Type - a person responsible setting a building on fire and pretends to
discover it, To appear as a “hero”,
3. Drug Addicts and Alcoholics
4. Sexual Deviates and Perverts

Major factors in determining Motives:

1. Point of Origin
2. Modus Operandi
3. Beneficiaries.

What is Corpus Delicti?

It is the fact that crime was committed.

Factors Involved:

1. Burning - that there was fire that may be shown by direct testimony of
complainant, fireman responding to the crime, and other witnesses of the fire
incident. Burned parts of the building may also indicate location.

2. Criminal Design - a wilful and intent action done must be shown.

3. Evidence of Intent - when valuables were removed from the building before the
fire, the ill feeling between the accused and other occupants of the building
involved or burned.