Use of a Solid Absorbent and an Accelerant Detection Canine for the Detection of Ignitable Liquids Burned in a Structure Fire

Abstract

Ignitable Liquid Absorbent (ILA), a commercial solid absorbent intended to assist fire scene investigators in sample location and collection, has been field tested in three separate room fires. The ability of the ILA to detect and absorb different amounts of gasoline, odorless paint thinner, and camp fuel on two different substrates after a full-scale burn was assessed against results from an accelerant detection canine and laboratory analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The canine correctly alerted on most of the panels that contained an ignitable liquid after the fire, while the ILA indicator dye failed to indicate in the presence of gasoline and camp fuel. GC-MS results for ignitable liquid residue from each panel and from the ILA showed that ILA absorbed odorless paint thinner and camp fuel from most of the test panels, but failed to absorb gasoline from the panels on which gasoline was confirmed to be present.

Total Ion Spectra versus Segmented Total Ion Spectra as Preprocessing Tools for Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry Data

“…Briefly, the data comprise a series of GC‐MS chromatograms (226 samples) obtained from the analysis of casework fire debris samples. Samples were analyzed by passive headspace sampling using activated carbon strips which were subsequently eluted with CS 2 containing a perdeuterated alkane ladder of n ‐C 7 to n ‐C 21 (odd alkanes only) and analyzed by GC‐MS. Trained experts in the Trace Evidence Services Laboratory of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police National Centre for Forensic Services established the ground truth for each chromatogram based on forensic interpretation following established protocols.…”

Forensic Science

“…A review of the ILR analysis literature between 2001 and 2007 (178) and a review of the analysis of alternative fuels (179) were published, as was a survey of Canadian gasolines from 2004 (180). A comparison of the effectiveness of different sorbents for the extraction of ILRs (181), the application of a new carbon membrane (182), and the use of soild sorbents coupled to accelerant detection canines (183) for detection of ILRs were reported. The collection and persistence of gasoline on hands was also published (184), as was the comparison of motor oils using high temperature GC/MS (185).…”

Cancer diagnosis: from dogs to DNA or from DNA to dogs?

“…However, everyone is familiar from daily life with the use of canine olfactory detection to detect explosives or illicit drugs, and the use of canine olfactory detection for security or forensic purposes is a generally accepted practice. The use of dogs is well established in forensic medicine, for example, for searching for human remains (cadaver dogs) (9) or in fi re investigations (10) . Why then should this " technology " not be acceptable for diagnosis of today ' s most dreaded disease ?…”