FIFTH DAY – Fire investigation

First of all, I apologize for the delay on the release of this post. I have been so busy both with one very important test and with a very special visit. Prof. Leda Kobziar, her husband, Prof. Domingo Molina Terrén and his family came to visit me and my family. Those were amazing days, sharing splendid moments with great people. I wonder when will we repeat...

Secondly, I warn you this is probably the most interesting post I will publish in this blog. It is not as long as others, maybe not as visual as others, but the lesson I learnt was so interesting. I will never forget that day. There we go!

Let’s develop one of the most interesting topics I learned while on Sardegna: fire investigation. It is important to explain the meaning of ‘fire investigation’ (or fire scene investigation), for it involves many things. As I understand it, fire investigation is the conjoint of actions, researches, conclusions and after-action-effects that seek to determine both the origin and cause of a wildfire. It is the analysis of wildfire-related incidents.

I had never enrolled a fire investigation team before, so I want you to forgive me is I make some mistakes in this post and I strongly ask you to send to me your comments and suggestions, as I don’t want to share wrong information. However, I would like you to know that what I am going to write is just the transcription of the day on which I learned the basis of fire investigation. Obviously, by the hand of Dr. Delogu, CFVA and GAUF crew.

The day started as a regular day: in Dr. Delogu’s Office. Actually, it was not a normal day. We had a meeting with Dr. Silvio Coco, Dottoressa Stefania Murranca, Ettore Deiana and both Dr. Delogu and me. We spent some time trying to figure out which is the best way to introduce on CFVA a sports training program. They don’t want to have out of shape fire crew and they will make all the crew get fit by employing kind of a personal training system, of course, totally adapted to each person physical status. This is amazing, because it is absolutely compulsory: fire crew needs a strong fitness. Even more in old-person-conformed fire crews (because of the strong efforts developed and the high likelihood of suffering either heatstrokes, or muscles aches or even heart attacks). The thinkg I really appreciated was that they were so interested in how we do that in Spain, and I tried to share all my knowledge as well as possible.

Later we drove to Monserrato Fire Station and had such a delicious meal: typical Italian pasta and sausages, good salad and fruit and kind of a homemade raw beacon with species (courtesy of Ettore Deiana). I absolutely enjoyed food in Sardegna, and that is a big deal. I mean, every single time a travel around the world I say: “OK, yes, the USA/France/Italy/Germany… is amazing but you’ll never eat as you do in Spain”. Nonetheless, this time was different. I loved Mediterranean Sardginian food.

The next step was a prescribed burn they did some time ago (I think maybe in May). A nice plot burned to prevent structural hazards in a close Government-managed building. They told me how they conducted the burn and their thoughts. Moreover, Ettore Deiana showed me a nice homemade adaptation to the 'batefuegos' (I am sorry but I don't remember the English word, holy smokes...). Nice experience sharing, but not as great as the next one (at least for me): fire investigation.

We moved to a private land to respond to a wildfire call: a property which burned several days ago and whose owner resulted fined as CFVA found he was the arsonist who put the fire on the ground.

Once arrived, other CFVA handcrew had suppressed the wildfire, which was really ‘soft’, behaving slowly even uphill. That was not a big deal. The question was: how is it possible, another fire in the same area (it actually started just in the end of the previous one, and burned maybe 200 square meters)? Was it arsonist-made? Which is the likelihood that to happen, that a man resulted fined for being arsonist and then a lightening/unknown cause start another wildfire exactly ahead? Answer: CFVA fire investigation team.

Guess what happened? Me and most of the guys there we thought that: the first time the arsonist argued that someone burned his house as revenge (or something similar), meaning that he was not the author. He never admitted his guiltiness. So it was logical to think that he had burned again the plot in other to demonstrate that he was not guilty!

I said “most of the guys there” because one of them was looking at some point which resulted interesting for him. Please, guess who that guy was. Yes, of course, dottore Giuseppe Delogu. 

Delogu looking at the key point (not fake picture)

He was looking with a concerned glaze to the starting point:

Ettore Deiana: ‘What is going on dottore Delogu?’

Giuseppe Delogu: ‘Something is wrong here’

Ettore Deiana: ‘What is wrong dottore?’

Giuseppe Delogu: ‘How is it possible that this stuff is that much burned if the wildfire just burned for several minutes, until our crew came and suppressed it? I mean, do you see these colors in the soil? That means high temperatures during lots of time’

Ettore Deiana: ‘What do you think happened?’

Giuseppe: ‘Let’s check it out’.

Nice conversation which made all the rest of us wonder if our judgment was absolutely wrong.

Crew wondering whether we were wrong or not close to the smoldering point

CFVA guys took the tools and started to research for evidences. You can see the procedure in the pictures below.

 

Unlike in Spain, in Italy 'Il dottore' works as one more crewmember

Raking up the smoldering combustion area

Here we go! Do you see that black stuff? And changes in colors

Everything has to be perfectly documented (evidences)

See how label 3 is overheated (it is plastic-made, bad choice)

More pictures

Some of the fire investigation stuff (electronic tools, labels, zipbags,...)

It is also very important to keep track of the area (GPS point because of the size)

'See these temperatures! That did not started to burn this morning!' - said Delogu

He confirmed that here smoldering combustion reached high temperatures

Of course, sampling is needed

Then, in the lab, everything is analysed

'Do you that kind of clay color? That means high temperatures' - told me Delogu

Also, sampling in the unburned area - to compare

Somehow Giuseppe Delogu noticed that a small visible piece of ground had a strange color, and that made all the difference: they found Delogu was right. The previous wildfire was bad suppressed, just with water on the surface, without checking for smoldering combustion (latent). They did not dig on the soil and oxygenate (aerate) the area in order to control the last stage of the combustion, so it remained burning underground, slowly but at very high temperatures (changing soil’s structure and modifying organic components’ status and proportions). That made the change in colors that Dr. Delogu noticed as a falcon.

Amazing lesson: ‘use evidences, not neither prejudgments, nor preconceptions, nor prejudices’. Never forget: we are SCIENTISTS, we have a METHOD and we MUST follow it.