There was an IFE TSAG (Technical Strategy and Advisory Group) meeting yesterday. Among the subjects discussed was the very real prospect of a separate IFE examination for fire investigation. Please let me have your views. It was also another opportunity to express the need for more investment in the IFE website.

The new (and most welcome) IFE journal also came up. All special interest groups will be expected to play a significant part in the journal. Like any journal, it will stand or fall on it's content so please start writing. Let's get some quality content and some lively debate going.

Our SIG

There will be an IFE TSAG (Technical Services and Advisory Group) meeting this Friday at which the special interest groups will be discussed. Please forward any views and opinions to me if you have time.
I will continue to lobby for investment in a good quality forum site for our group. I believe it is the best, most immediate and cost effective way of developing membership involvement.
In the longer term I will also lobby for a dedicated IFE FI qualification by examination.
I am sure the new IFE journal will require much involvement from SIGs so please start work on articles in advance.
With effect from May 1st I will be full time employed by IFIC Forensics. Part of my remit will be to recruit further investigators.
I personally see this as a conflict of interest and for that reason I would prefer to step down as chair. One or more of you may be better able or placed to take up the reins of this SIG. We are not burdoned by a formal constitution so please let me know if you would be interested. There is great potential.

Dynamic Risk Assessment (DRA)

Please check out this link to a lively and informative discussion: Who's using dynamic risk assessment (DRA)? This is a topic of interest to us all. Please participate.
Let's be honest. Do we all actually write a true and acurate Risk Assessment of our fire scenes? Do we all update them as we proceed? Or are we paying lip-service to a procedure that serves to protect us?
DRA absolutely applies to us: we will remove gloves, mask, helmet etc. for various reasons in the course of a site examination but how do we ensure we are taking right and proper action and how do we record it? How will we defend our actions if something goes wrong?
It is too easy to be complacent at a fire scene:
Some in the past have paid the price of not using masks and I suspect many of us are still not fully aware or appreciative of the dangers. Nitrile gloves are great for sample examination but are not suitable for the main scene work. And what use is a helmet without a strap?
Fire Service investigators are much better equiped. The private sector must follow suit. Yes it may look odd at some scenes to appear dressed up for a pot-holing expedition but we would look pretty stupid going pot-holing in a strap-less bump hat and Hi-Viz vest!

FI qualifications, standards and credibility

Once again the IAAI-UK have managed to put on a very useful event. From the theft of cables underground to fire tests in space! At the end of the meeting Pete Mansi raised the very important topic of how we, as forensic investigation practitioners, fill the credibility gap left by the loss of the CRFP. I agree with Pete that it falls upon us and the various organisations we belong to or are associated with to move this issue forward (before somebody does it for us). FI is in danger of becoming even more fragmented and inconsistent across the UK. I would like to open the discussion now in our small group. Let's discuss the issues and then think about any solutions. Here are some thoughts: CRFP could be replaced by a similar subscription based body that is involved only with FI but what organisation could take this on? FI Training is seemingly run by whoever wishes to do so. To what standards? What input? What evaluation? Is it really all down to cost? Degree courses etc. are many-fold. What is the career path for the candidates? What is the value to the industry? Private providers are becoming profligate. They will get work eventually but the private sector is a minefield and expert witnesses can be prosecuted. Are we heading for potential bun-fights in court? Fire Services are continually cutting back and dedicated, full time FI is a luxury item. What are the consequences? Are skills lost or diluted? The loss of FSS was a strange turn of events for many of us I am sure. The private sector is slowly responding but what are the required standards? As long as they find somebody to do the job at the right price do the Police care? What are their criteria for engaging forensic experts? Communication and sharing of information is still very poor. The IFE will, hopefully, be able to provide a forum when there is sufficient IT funds available but that will never be sufficient to fill the gap. I like what I hear about what appears effectively to be the Nationalisation of the Fire Service in Scotland. CFOA are working on FI standards for England and Wales (not sure about NI. Can someone enlighten me please?). But none of this will affect the private market. And what about the private market? They are not bound by any rules, procedure or guidelines but they get the job done. And in many cases they get the job done very well indeed. Over to you..........

FI skills and knowledge

With the abolition of CRFP there still exists a gap in the acreditation of FI pratitioner's skills. There have also been many examples in Courts of poor procedure and knowledge of experts in the field. As a profession we need to seek some means to ensure good skills and knowledge and to show maintenance of same. The basic training-based foundation has never been good enough due to it's short duration. Practitioner's advanced skills and knowledge has depended upon the individual's seeking of further education and self-learning. The problem is that without a good under-pinning knowledge any subsequent experience gained may often be wasted. I would like to canvas opinion on the following: 1. Should the IFE consider running a specific FI examination other than the current members paper? 2. Should the IFE consider setting up a Register of FI practitioners (similar to the current register of Fire Risk Assessors)? 3. Is there anything else the IFE should consider? IAAI CFI is OK but is not considered particularly desirable or required in the UK and does not test knowledge in great detail. The Forensic Science Society FI diploma is a detailed but expensive option. There are a number of Universities offering courses but there are considerable costs. I am still waiting for the IFE website to host a good quality forum for FI and have now suggested websites for the SIGs rather than these blogs. Without such advances I can see no further significant progress for the group. Our profession needs to comunicate much more widely than at present; This is not even happening between fire services so someone must step up to the mark. The IAAI US forum site was very good but sadly fell into disuse. Other forums and bulletin boards have come and gone. What is the problem? Are we all too busy? None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes but trends are being missed, dogma and missinformation is not being corrected and unsafe cases are going before the courts. Errors are being made accross all the practitioner groups; Police, Fire, Forensic Science and Insurance. I have recently been given an example where a court expert stated that a fire could not make the transition from flaming to smouldering. I have seen a case where the likely connection between two apparent separate seats of fire was not discovered until the trial. I know of another where a lack of comunication between authorities led to a arsonist not being interviewed and thus being undiscovered. The same man comitted a murder 6 months later. Let us discuss this openly now. FI has undoubtedly improved many-fold over the years but it is still fragmented and there are still errors being made. Ask within your own organsation what feedback is there? Are cases debriefed? Is there adequate peer review of cases? Do you work alone all of the time? What was your basic training? What is your continuation training? What CPD is undertaken? Do you have time to do a job to the full National Operating Standards? Please give it thought and please participate. Many thanks.

New trend - Hotpoint Dishwasher

Please check your records and data for the following: Dishwasher - Hotpoint FWD60. There is a clear trend with this appliance. Please forward any positive findings to David Wales. David, Will you keep the group posted with any progress and a summary of the issue when you have the time. Thanks.

Fire in Battery Recycling Bin

Every time I see Dave Townsend he nags me to put a blog up here. I’m due to meet him at IFE exam marking week soon so thought I had better do something quick!

Most of my most interesting investigations are still likely to end in court at some point so it’s probably best that I don’t discuss openly at this stage.

However, I recently investigated a fire that I had been ‘expecting’ for some time and am interested to know if anyone else has had a similar experience.

The fire started in a battery recycling collection bin, but thankfully didn’t spread every far. I have been expecting something like this since the WEE Regs (Waste Electrical Equipment) and Battery Directive came in. To be honest my concerns were more related to battery collection points in public buildings like shops and libraries.

The fire started in the wee small hours (see what I did there?) in a TV production company building that was unoccupied overnight. The alarm was raised by a smoke detector and the system worked well enough that a keyholder arrived shortly after the fire crews so they were able to get in and restrict the damage.

The plastic bin where the fire started was about the size of a bucket. It was used as a temporary collection point before transfer to a large wheelie bin in another part of the building. This wheelie bin contained thousands (no I didn’t count them!) of batteries.

The bin where the fire started contained hundreds of batteries (I gave up counting after 100) of various sizes, voltage ratings and technologies: Zinc/Carbon, Zinc Chloride, Alkaline, Lithium, Li-ion, AA, C, D and ‘exotic shapes’. (See photo at top) I found no coin batteries. However the predominant type was the 9 volt PP3 (MN1604) ‘smoke alarm’ battery with two terminals at one end. Clearly, if you chuck lots of these batteries in a bin sooner or later you will get a short circuit.

Apparently the camera crews used to empty their pockets at the end of a day’s filming. Although some were exhausted many of the batteries still delivered in excess of their rated voltage so were not exactly discharged! The boss was quite upset at the cost of recycling perfectly good batteries.

Also of interest was that one Li-ion camera pack battery was hot to the touch over 3 hours after the fire. One part of it measured 71.8 ºC.

Has anyone else come across anything similar?