Literature on Fire Investigations

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3DForensics
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Literature on Fire Investigations

Post by 3DForensics »

Hello All,

I am trying to do some research into the use of laser scanning for fire investigation and would like to see some posts or links about how this has been used to assist in documenting or investigating fires.

I saw a paper some time ago about using the intensity values to determine the amount of temperature exposure for concrete. If there is anything similar out there, it would be great if you could point me to it.

Thanks,

Eugene
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Re: Literature on Fire Investigations

Post by 3DForensics »

I found this paper online and it's rather interesting as it uses the intensity values to tell you something about the temperatures at which concrete may have been exposed.

Detecting Fire Damaged Concrete Using Laser Scanning

Any other images or information would be helpful.

Thanks!

Eugene
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Re: Literature on Fire Investigations

Post by Jason Warren »

An interesting paper, thanks for posting ... ;)
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Re: Literature on Fire Investigations

Post by Oliver Buerkler »

Interesting paper indeed.

But to me some questions arise from quickly reading over it:
- which laser wavelength would be the best to detect the changes in the material?
- will the same laser wavelenght work on different materials or even on different concrete composites?
- how sensitive are the results to the laser wavelenght? Even one specific scanner may vary its wavelenght within a few nano meter.
- are the intensity values of the scanner calibrated?

There seems to be a lot of research to be done - get on it! :)

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Re: Literature on Fire Investigations

Post by 3DForensics »

Hello Everyone,

I gave a presentation at the International Association of Arson Investigators near Barrie, Ontario last Thursday, but on June 2nd, I was invited to witness some live burns of rooms in an old farmers house. I was able to scan the house before and then did the individual rooms afterwards.

Here is some of the material.

Fly through of house

youtu.be/Rl9wuDN4pUA

Screenshots of burned rooms.
LivingRoomBurned1a.jpg
Bedroom2Burned1a.jpg
KitchenBurned1a.jpg
Also, I tried an interesting experiment using a single thermal image applied to the laser scan of the living room. Unfortunately, the FLIR camera is low resolution and saves the logo and scale in the image so I didn't bother removing it in Photoshop. Either way, it send the message across.

Note: Thanks to Jonathan Coco for all his help here - if you want to know about thermal imaging, he's got some really good insight.
LivingRoomThermal.jpg
Finally, the last experiment I tried was with Infrared Images. This is modified Fuji camera that records non-visible light. It's really not the right application and is used more for imaging hard to see evidence at crime scenes (bloodstains on dark clothing or gunshot residue), but the principle is the same as the thermal image.
Bedroom2Infrared.jpg
I think there are some really good opportunities in Fire Investigation in terms of documenting fire and explosion scenes.

Eugene
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Re: Literature on Fire Investigations

Post by jcoco3 »

Very cool Eugene! After trying thermal images I have been wanting to see what an IR or UV image would look like for so time now, I just have not had the time to test it out. It is very exciting to see this becoming something useful :D
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Re: Literature on Fire Investigations

Post by colhum1 »

Just goes to show that scanning is becoming more versatile and diverse....I wonder if we're missing an opportunity here in the UK :) .
I bet there aren't many fire investigation teams here that have access to laser scanning equipment or even thought of using it. Overlaying IR or UV images could be really useful.....
Great demo by the way.
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Re: Literature on Fire Investigations

Post by scottgrieve »

Hello Eugene,

Have you seen much development over the years of laser scanning being applied to fire investigations?

Best Wishes,
Scott
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Re: Literature on Fire Investigations

Post by 3DForensics »

Sorry for late reply...

Yes, there has been some development both personally and generally. We did a fire scene in NYC a while back and there are others on this forum (like Mark Johnson) that had some interesting cases.

I have seen where investigators are starting to get on board with laser scanning. However, it seems to me this is still at the very early stages.

In case you have some ideas or are doing some research, I would say the door is wide open and lots of opportunities.

Eugene
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