ABSTRACT
There are several excellent sources of information relative to the investigation of fires. Most of these sources are associated with the investigation and the determination of the origin and the cause of the fire. DeHann has written Kirk’s Fire Investigations and is probably one of the best known and most quoted books on fires. Lentini has also written on the subject as well as others. In this chapter we do not attempt to duplicate the investigative techniques that are available in the literature. Rather the focus of this chapter on fires is from a thermodynamic standpoint and the calculations that a forensic engineer may conduct. The first part of the discussion on fires deals with the combustion of the materials in a fire, their decomposition, and the propagation of the fire through the appropriate thermodynamic process.
