Arson or Fire Loss Investigation
[ What is Arson? ] [ Types of Arson ] [ Arson Motivation ] [ Arson Targets ] [ Arson Investigation ]
Detect Fire
Prevent Fire
Arson Investigation
What is Arson?
A crime like arson is done for profit or financial gain. With this in mind, it is a criminal method of stealing money from the fire insurance company. Hence we will do a fire loss investigation. Economic arson occurs when a place of business, a warehouse, an office, etc. is set to fire. For instance, the motivation can be to decrease financial losses or recuperate investments. Sometimes arsonists will burn down depreciated assets to get money from insurance companies.
Arson is one of the causes of major property damage. Many injuries to homeowners, house residents, emergency staff, and firefighters are the results of fire accidents or arson.
Types of Arson
- Single Arson – a single fire set at one location, with no cooling off period
- Double Arson – a single fire set at two different locations, with no cooling off period
- Tripple Arson – a single fire set at three different locations, with no cooling off period
- Mass Arson – 3 or more fires set at the same time at the same location
- Spree Arson – 3 or more fires set at different locations, with no cooling off period between
- Serial Arson – 3 or more fires set at different locations, with a period of time in between
What motivates arsonists to set things on fire?
- insurance fraud
- vandalism (especially abandoned or empty buildings)
- the excitement of settings things at blaze (such as attention-seeking, sexual gratification, acting as a hero later)
- personal revenge acts
- extremism
- acts of revenge or spite; targetting businesses, organizations, institutions, society as a whole, groups
- covering up or hiding a crime, burning evidence to destroy proof (secondary crime)
- profit-driven to collect insurance money
- burning down places and get paid rebuild
What could be the targets of arsonists?
- vehicles, cars, motorcycles, trucks
- public property
- buildings, residential places, houses, private property
- warehouses
- garages, sheds
- forests
- nature reserves
Arson Investigation
We can investigate all these pointers/red flags. This needs to be with the intention to identify potential suspects that could be arsonists. We perform profiling and other investigations to collect factual data relating to the fire/arson incident.
1st we need to explicitly identify the cause of an arson case or accidental fire. Consequently, we will conduct a risk analysis to identify hazards and dangerous practices. It is significantly important to prevent future fires, financial loss, and injuries.
- Was the fire an accident or an arson case?
- Did somebody set the place intentionally on fire?
- Do you have enemies or adversaries that are targetting you?
- Who would benefit from creating a fire?
- Did the fire cover something up?
- Was there any evidence destroyed in the fire?
- Did the fire cover up a homicide (in case a body was found in the fire)?
Our arson specialists will conduct a professional investigation. We check if the fire was accidental or if it was intentionally ignited (arson). We combine evidence collection with interviews. This will allow the court to determine if a crime was committed.
