Legal Aspect of fire Investigation

1. Arson – is the intentional or malicious destruction of property by means of fire. The law
presumes that a fire is accidental, hence criminal designs must be shown. Fire caused
by accident or negligence does not constitute arson.

DESTRUCTIVE ARSON
Under PD 1613, the penalty Of Reclusion Perpetua to Death shall be imposed upon any
person who shall burn:

1. One (1) or more buildings or edifices, consequent to one single act of burning, or as a result
of simultaneous burnings, or committed on several or different occasions.
2. Any building of public or private ownership, devoted to the public in general or where people
usually gather or congregate for a definite purpose such as, but not limited to official
governmental function of business, private transaction, commerce, trade workshop, meetings
and conferences, or merely incidental to a definite purpose such as but not limited to hotels,
motels, transient dwellings, public conveyance or stops or terminals, regardless of whether the
offender had knowledge that there are persons in said building or edifice at the time it is set on
fire and regardless also of whether the buildings is actually inhabited or not.
3. Any train or locomotive, ship or vessel, airship or airplane devoted to transportation or
conveyance, or for public use, entertainment or leisure.
4. Any building, factory, warehouse installation and any appurtenances thereto, which are
devoted to the service to public utilities.
5. Any building the burning of which is for the purpose of concealing or destroying evidence of
another violation of law, or for the purpose of concealing bankruptcy or defrauding creditors or
to collect from insurance.

The penalty of Reclusion Perpetua to Death shall also be imposed upon any person
who shall burn:

1. any arsenal, shipyard, storehouse or military power or firework factory, ordinance,

storehouse, archives or general museums of the government.
2. in an inhabited place, any storehouse or factory of inflammable or explosives materials.

If the consequences of the commission of any of the acts penalized under this Article,
death results, the mandatory penalty of death shall be imposed (sec. 10, RA 7659).

Bases of criminal liability in arson:

1. Kind and character of the building burned
2. Location of the building
3. Extent or value of the damage
4. Whether inhabited or not

OTHER FORMS OF ARSON:

1. Setting fires to any building, farmhouse, warehouse, hut, shelter, or vessel in port knowing it
be occupied at the time by one or more person.
2. Building burned is a public building and value of damage exceeds six thousands pesos
(P6000.00)
3. Building burned is a public building and purpose is to destroy evidence kept therein to be
used in instituting prosecution for punishment of violators of law, irrespective of the amount of
damage.
4. Building burned is a public building and purpose is to destroy evidence kept therein to be
used in legislative, judicial or administrative proceeding, irrespective of the damage, if the
evidence is to be used against defendant of any crime punishable under existing law.

ARSON OF PROPERTY OF SMALL VALUE (Art. 323, RPC)

- Burning of any uninhabited but, storehouse, barn, shed, or any another property, under
circumstances clearly excluding all danger of the fire spreading, value of the property not
exceeded 25.00 pesos.
NOTE: Article 326, RPC – Setting Fire Property Exclusively Owned By the Offender.

This act is punished if the purpose the offender is to:

1. defraud or cause damage to another or
2. damaged is actually caused upon another’s property even if such purpose is absent
3. thing burned is a building in an inhabited place.

PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1613 AMENDING THE LAW ON ARSON

Special Aggravating Circumstance in Arson

1. If committed with intent to gain:
2. If committed with the benefit of another:
3. If the offender is motivated by spite or hatred towards the owner or occupant of the property
burned:
4. If committed by syndicate (3 or more persons).

Prima Facie Evidence of Arson

1. If the fire started simultaneously in more than one part of the building or establishment
2. If substantial amounts of flammable substance or materials are stored within the building not
necessary in the business of the offender or for house hold use.
3. If gasoline, kerosene, petroleum, or other flammable or combustible substances or materials
soaked therewith or containers thereof, or any mechanical, electrical, chemical, or electronic
contrivance designed to start a fire, or ashes or traces of any of the foregoing are found in the
ruins or premises of the burned building or property.
4. If the building or property is insured for substantially more than its actual value at the time of
the issuance of the policy.
5. If during the lifetime of the corresponding fire insurance policy more than two fires have
occurred in the same or other premises owned or under the control of the offender and / or
insured.
6. If shortly before the fire, a substantial portion of the effects insured and stored in a building or
property had been withdrawn from the premises except in the ordinary course of business.
7. If a demand for money or other valuable consideration was made before the fire in exchange
for the desistance of the offender of the offender or the safety of the person or property of the
victim.

ARSON INVESTIGATION
Methods of Proof in Arson
1. Burning – that there was fire that may be show by direct testimony of complaint, firemen
responding to the crime, other eyewitnesses. Burned parts of the building may also indicate
location.
2. Criminal design – must show that was willfully and intentionally done. The presence of
incendiary devices, flammables such as gasoline and kerosene may indicate that the fire is not
accidental.
3. Evidence of Intent – When valuables were removed from the building before the fire,
illfeeling between the accused and the occupants of the building burned, absence of effort to put
off fire and such other indications.

Basic lines of inquiry in Arson Investigation:

1. Point of origin of fire – At what particular place in the building the fire started? This may be
established by an examination of the witness, by an inspection of the debris at the fire scene
and by studying the fingerprint of fire. The fingerprint of fire occurs during the free burning stage
of the fire when pyrolytic decomposition moves upward on the walls leaving a bunt pattern.
2. Motive of arsonist – Intimidation or economic Disabling – Arsonist as saboteurs, strikers
and racketeers to intimidate management or employer. Pyromania – the uncontrollable desire
to put fire to things.
3. Prime Suspects (and the Prima Facie evidences) – This involves identification results from
the full development of leads, clues and traces, the testimony particularly eyewitnesses and the
development of expert testimony, the following technique may serve the investigation:
4. THE TELL TALE SIGN OF ARSONS:

a. Burned Building – the type of the building may indicate a set fire under certain
circumstance. A fire of considerable size at the time the first apparatus arrive at the scene is
suspicious if it is a modern concrete or semiconcrete building.
b. Separate fires – When two or more separate fire breaks out within a building. The fire is
certainly suspicious.
c. Color of smoke – The observation of the smoke must be made at the start of the fire since
once the fire has assumed a major proportion, the value of the smoke is lost, because the
smoke will not indicate the material used by the arsonist. Meaning of color of Smoke and Fire:
Black smoke with deep red flame – petroleum products, tar, rubber, plastics, etc. Heavy brown
with deep red flame – nitrogen products White smoke with bright flame – magnesium products
d. Color of flame – The color of the flame is a good indication of the intensity of the fire, an
important factor in determining incendiarism.
e. Amount of Heat – A reddish glow indicates heat of 5000 degrees centigrade. A real bright
read about 100 degrees centigrade. Red flames indicate of petroleum. Blue flame indicates use
of alcohol as accelerant.
f. Smoke Marks – An experience investigation will determine the volume of smoke involved at a
fire and the character as residue deposited on walls or elsewhere.
g. Size of Fire – This is important when correlated with the type of alarm, the time received and
the time of arrival of the first fire apparatus. Fires make what might be termed a normal
progress.
h. Direction of Travel – While it is admitted that no two fire burn in identical fashion, yet it can
be shown that the fire makes normal progress through various types of building materials,
combustibility of contents, channel of ventilation and circumstances surrounding the sending of
alarm an experienced investigator can determine whether a fire spread abnormality fast.
i. Intensity – Difficulty in extinguishing the fire is often a lead to suspect presence of such fluid
as gasoline and kerosene.
 j. Odor – The odor of gasoline, alcohol, kerosene and other inflammable liquids which are often
used as accelerant is characteristics of oftentimes arsonist are trapped because of this telltale
sign. Most of fire – setters are inclined to use substance which will make the blaze certain and
at the same time burn up any evidence of their crime.
k. Condition of Content – Persons tending to set their house on fire frequently crime
objects of value either materially or sentimentally. Store and other business establishments
oftentimes remove a major portion of their content or replace valuable merchandise without of
style articles.

INDICATORS OF ARSON

1. Burn Patterns - The traditional “V” or inverted cone pattern is probably the most common
and easily recognized. Some of the V-patterns are very sharp in shape; others spread out,
making a wide V.
2. Fire Language - This gives information about the fire, including the path of spread,
temperatures reached, and fuel involved. The physical signs and substances that reveal by
implication, how a fire developed are referred to as “fire language”.
3. Lines And Areas Of Demarcation- It appears between the affected area and adjacent
unaffected or less affected areas of the structure and its contents.
4. Depth Of Char - Char is the carbonization of fuel by the action of heat or burning. The term is
generally applied to the combustible residue remaining after the pyrolysis of wood. The depth of
char refers to the depth of the charred material, its value is obtained by measuring the distance
from the surface of the original dimensional wood (lumber) to the boundary of the carbonized
fraction, and comparing this with remaining unburned matters.
5. Spalling- It is a condition ordinarily associated with masonry and cement building materials. It
may appear as a distinctive discoloration of brick or concrete and, in some cases, the surface of
the material may be pitted and rough.
6. Oxidation - Oxidation is the basic chemical process of combustion. Oxidation of some
materials that do not burn can produce lines of demarcations and fire patterns useful to the fire
investigator. Some of the effects of oxidation include changes of color and texture.
7. Heat Indicators- Those pieces of fused of metal that suggest both the path of fire spread and
the location of highest temperature. The most severe damage is usually found (use of
accelerant excluded) at or near the point of origin.
8. Calcination - It refers to the changes that occur in a fire either plaster or gypsum wall
surfaces.
9. Glass Indicator - Glass items such as mirror, windowpanes, etc. are also affected by the
heat build up, smoke, and flame. Heat
damages (fusing) and smoke staining on glass items tends to occur in direct relation to: the heat
build up, the intensity of fire, the spread of fire spread, and nearness to the fire.
10. Smoked – Stained And Checkered Glass - An item heavily stained by smoke and soot was,
therefore, cooler than with light build up of soot. A heavy soot buildup of the glass surface
suggests that the item was far from the fire’s point of origin.
11. Crazed And Fracture Of Glass - Crazing refers to the cracking of glass into smaller
segments or subdivisions in an irregular pattern. The extent of which item will crack is related to
the type of glass involved, its thickness, the temperature range to which it was exposed and its
distance from the point of origin.

Persons with motives

  Those with desire to defraud the Insurer
 Employees or such other person who have a grievance (Fire revenge)
 Those with desire to conceal evidence of a crime
 Those who set fire for purposes of intimidation

People without motives

 Those who are mentally ill

 Pathological fire-setters
 Pyros and the Psychos

Motives of Arsonist

1. Economic Gain
 Insurance fraud - benefiting
 Desire to dispose merchandise - lost of market value being out of season, lack of raw
materials, over supply of merchandise can be a big reason for arson.
 Existing business transaction that the arsonist would like to avoid such as impending
liquidation, settlement of estate.
 Profit by the Perpetrator other than the Assured like insurance

2. Concealment of Crime - When the purpose of hiding a crime or committing a crime, arson
was used as means.

3. Punitive Measure - Committing arson to inflict injury to another due to hatred, jealousy and
revenge.

4. Intimidation or Economic Disabling - Arsonist as saboteurs, strikers and racketeers to

intimidate management or employer.

5. Pyromania - A pyromaniac having the uncontrollable impulse to burn anything without any
motivation. They do not run away from the fire scene since they love watching fire burning.

Types of Pyromania

 Abnormal Youth - epileptics, imbeciles and morons

 Hero Type - a person set a building on fire and pretends to discover it, turn on the alarm
or make some rescue works to appear as "hero"
 Drug addicts and alcoholics
 Sexual deviates and perverts.