Target-compound method for the analysis of accelerant residues in fire debris

✍ Scribed by Philip L. Wineman; Raymond O. Keto

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 922 KB
• Volume: 288
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-2670
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-2670(94)85119-0

✦ Synopsis

Ah&Net A primary task of arson analysis is to identify residues of commonly targeted accelerants (gasoline, petroleum naphthas, kerosine, and diesel fuel) when present in samples of fire debris. The commonly employed method separates volatile debris components by flame-ionization gas chromatography (GC-FID) and compares the resulting profile with profiles for neat and partially evaporated accelerant exemplars. This method fails, that is, neither establishes nor disproves the presence of an accelerant, when GC peaks of non-accelerant origin (usually pyrolysii products) are sufficient in number and size to conceal an otherwise diagnostic accelerant pattern. In such cases the GC effluent can be analyzed by mass spectrometry (MS) to distinguish accelerant-related species from co-eluting, but non-identical, substrate-related species. Recent work by others has shown that the GC-MS data extraction and patterning technique known as mass (or extracted ion) chromatography contributes substantially to accelerant recognition in high-background samples by limiting interferences to only a few classes of non-accelerant species. A different GC-MS approach, developed in this laboratory and described in this paper, employs target compound analysis to exclude interference by all such species.