Fire can be a friend and an enemy for a person. Sometimes it causes significant damage, takes life. For example, structures may burn as a result of arson. You should understand how this phenomenon qualifies, and also consider the features of its investigation. The arson examination is carried out by experienced specialists who know all the nuances of the procedure.
What is arson? Reasons for its implementation
First you need to deal with the presented term. So, setting fire to a house is basically a deliberate destruction of property carried out using an open flame. In some cases, fire can take a life.
Arson of a house, car or other property can be carried out for a specific reason:
- in order to hide the traces of an already committed crime or prepare for it;
- in order to take revenge;
- to intimidate victims or other persons who interfere with the implementation of illegal actions;
- to get insurance.
In addition, arson of a car or home can occur due to improper compliance with fire safety rules, improper storage of explosive and flammable products.
Ways to commit arson
There are various means that provide the ignition of a building or equipment. Therefore, there are various ways to carry out arson.
- With the help of specially prepared substances that are able to quickly ignite.
- Creating conditions in which any materials ignite on their own, which will contribute to the occurrence of a fire.
- Using special technical devices, as well as engineered products, with the help of which arson can be done at a certain time. Thus, the offender can delay the fire in order to ward off suspicion.
For example, arson of a car is often carried out using explosives or by damage to electrical wiring.
Examination Tasks
Now we should consider what experts are required to do. The arson examination carried out must fulfill the following tasks:
- find out if a fire was deliberately caused;
- determine which arson methods were used;
- set the ignition time of the object;
- determine the nature of the damage and its size;
- establish how the situation has changed during the extinguishing of the fire;
- if there are dead, then you need to find out how death came. For this, a medical examination of the bodies.
In principle, these are all the main tasks that the arson examination sets itself. Based on the information received, criminal proceedings are instituted in the future.
Features of the examination
In order to understand how crimes related to fires are investigated, you need to consider the procedure itself for the necessary investigative actions. So, the arson examination involves some specific steps.
- Initial inspection of the scene. It allows you to set the source of fire, the path of propagation of the fire and the characteristics of the fire, to detect traces of the attacker and other parameters.
- Then a survey of eyewitnesses is conducted.
- Fire and technical expertise. It provides the establishment of a fire.
- Examination of substances and materials by which a fire could be caused. At this stage, experiments are conducted with products of combustion, which can be on various surfaces.
- Electrical Engineering Research. This sets whether the cause of the fire could be a malfunction or intentional damage to the wiring. In addition, such a study helps to find out how emergency protection systems worked. Be sure such an examination is carried out if the car was set on fire.
- Forensic research. It is carried out only if a corpse was found at the crime scene.
- Investigative experiment. Thanks to this action, the picture of the crime is restored. It must be carried out at the place where the fire was carried out.
In this way, an investigation of the crime by experts of a special laboratory is carried out.
Deliberate arson and responsibility for it
Very often, ignition occurs by someone's will. That is, deliberate arson is carried out. However, this crime necessarily has criminal consequences for the offender.
The presented crime provides for the following types of punishment: restriction or imprisonment. It all depends on the severity of the arson, as well as the presence of injured or dead people. In this case, the offender can spend behind bars for three years. The upper threshold for the duration of punishment is unlimited.
It should be said that responsibility for such atrocities comes already from the age of fourteen. If the damage is not very large, and no one died during the fire, the offender will receive up to five years in prison. Naturally, the Criminal Code provides for different qualifications of the presented offense.
That's all. Be prudent.