• Question: Do you like to burn things?

    Asked by lulzificationator9 to Niamh, Jamie, Jodie, Kat, Mark on 18 Mar 2011 in Categories: . This question was also asked by jackalope1997.
    • Photo: Mark Hill

      Mark Hill answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi lulzificationator9,

      I don’t get around to burning things usually.

      However, I have been on vehicle fire investigation courses where we get to burn vehicles and, by noting where we put the fire fuel loads and set the fires, we learn how the vehicles burn, study the burn patterns and learn how to make sense of a charred wreck after we have put it out.

      Good fun.

      Mark

    • Photo: Jamie Pringle

      Jamie Pringle answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hello both,

      I presume this is a question for Mark or Niamh? Not in my job remit!

    • Photo: Niamh Nic Daeid

      Niamh Nic Daeid answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi Lulzificationator9 and jackalope1997

      I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in quite a lot of experiments and tests which have involved burning various things, from cars to buildings. When you’re doing tests like that you need to be very organised and have all of the equipment your using in place, tested and working at the time of ignition because you rarely get a second chance to start the fire. Our research work involved examining how electrical supply cables operated in fires and in what sequence relative to the point of origin of the fire the cables would fail. We also used the fire scenes as training scenes for fire investigators. This involves training the investigators in how to examine electrical appliances , to look at materials and patterns left over after the fire and use these to interpret where the fire started and how it spread through the scene.

      All good stuff…

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