Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Photo source: Unsplash dangerous operation, do not try.

In the early morning of September 21, 1986, a fire broke out in an apartment building in Chicago, killing brother Guadalupe Martinez (Guadalupe Martinez), 28, and brother Julio, 19.

Fortunately, the family also had sister Blanca, 33, and brother Jorge, 22, who managed to escape from the fire. Blanca told police that she suspected that neighbor Lisa Velez set fire to her two brothers because Velez had threatened to burn down their home. Several other neighbors confirmed that Velez did say so.

The year before the fire, Velez's brother, who she believes was killed by a street gang called the Latin King, was also a member of George, who survived the fire. Velez may have set fire out of revenge. However, Velez did not admit to setting the fire.

Later, when investigators visited the residents, they learned that three people had appeared in the alley behind the apartment building before the incident. Two of the three were identified as 19-year-old Michael Almendales (Michael Almendarez) and 18-year-old John Calvin (John Galvan), who also live in the neighborhood.

As the investigation progressed, police arrested Calvin, Michael Armendales'20-year-old brother, Arthur, and 22-year-old Francisco Nanez, a relative of the Armendales family. The trio were later sentenced to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder and aggravated arson.

In this case, Calvin admitted to being the initiator and said he lit a bottle full of gasoline with a cigarette, and all three were together when Nanez threw the bottle at the apartment building. Until 2007, Calvin in prison saw a rerun of the MythBusters episode on the Discovery Channel.

The movie is full of lies, "MythBusters" is an explosive knowledge show, the original protagonists are two special effects experts Adam Whitney Savage (Adam Savage) and Jamie Heineman (Jamie Hyneman), in order to crack some of the widely circulated rumors, they have to conduct a variety of dangerous experiments.

Of the nearly 3000 experiments conducted during the period from 2003 to 2018, only about 900 produced explosions. So, there are always some experiments that can't achieve the shocking effect that people expect. For example, in the third season, which aired in 2005, there was a special program to verify whether the big scenes of Hollywood films could be realized.

There are often scenes in movies where humans seem to inadvertently throw a cigarette on gasoline, and the gasoline burns quickly and even explodes violently-one of the rumors that MythBusters want to test. When people smoke, the highest temperature of cigarettes may reach 900 ℃, which is much higher than the self-ignition point of gasoline. Adam threw a cigarette that had just been smoked into a stall of gasoline on the ground (please don't imitate it). As a result, not only did not explode, but even the flames could not be seen.

Photo source: MythBusters may not have enough contact with the hottest, glowing part of the cigarette. Later, Adam and Jamie modified the experiment so that instead of throwing the cigarette directly on the gasoline, the burning end of the cigarette was rubbed repeatedly on a pool of gasoline, allowing the gasoline to come into full contact with the soot, but nothing happened. It is extremely difficult to light gasoline with a cigarette. By contrast, when a lighted piece of paper is thrown into the pool of gasoline, the gasoline burns quickly.

In 2007, Calvin, 39, had spent 21 years in prison. As soon as he saw the program, he contacted his lawyer. The lawyer said she had seen the same show in the past when she saw the scene in which a car could explode by throwing a cigarette butt without thinking about whether it was true or not, but after watching MythBusters, she needs to do more research in this respect.

As it happens, the US Administration of Tobacco, Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) also conducted detailed experiments on this problem in 2007. As arson suspects often insist that the fire was caused by a cigarette accidentally igniting gasoline, Richard Tontarski, a scientist from ATF, and his colleagues conducted about 2000 experiments under various conditions to see if such an accident was possible.

Throwing cigarettes into gasoline is just one of the simplest cases. In addition, the researchers sprayed gasoline spray directly on lighted cigarette butts; spread gasoline on a baking pan to cover as much as possible; and even used vacuum equipment to allow tobacco to burn to higher temperatures. Considering that the experimental results of different cigarette products may be different, the researchers also brought in various brands of cigarettes to test.

Even so, scientists have not achieved the result of lighting gasoline with cigarettes. "although the movie is played that way, as long as oxygen levels are normal, it is difficult to ignite gasoline with a lighted cigarette on gasoline," Totusky said. " X-ray thermal imaging shows that the contact between gasoline and the hottest soot is very limited and local. In this regard, British forensic scholar Robin Hollihead (Robin Holleyhead) believes that the temperature of the outer ash is not so high, can block a lot of heat, so that gasoline can not get these calories.

Since a large number of experiments have given negative results, Calvin's statement of "lighting a bottle of gasoline with a cigarette" may not be true. From the moment he saw the scene in MythBusters, the trial went through many twists and turns, and Calvin and two other partners sentenced to life in prison were finally dropped in 2022 and got their lives back.

In fact, Calvin already said that he slept at his grandmother's house until the morning of the murder. As for why he made another guilty statement, Calvin said he was beaten by a detective named Viktor Victor Switski, who threatened him with death. Calvin's brother, Isaac, who was also questioned by the police for 11 hours after the murder, recalled cries from the interrogation room where his brother was locked up, as well as the noise from tables and walls. In addition, many people testified that they had been abused by Svitsky.

Arson or accident Calvin's freedom came 36 years late. Compared with him, some people may be luckier and don't have to wait so long.

In the early hours of October 16, 1990, a fierce fire broke out in a family's house on Lime Street Street in Jacksonville, Florida. Two adult women and four children were killed.

One of the adult victims was Caroline Carolyn Lewis, and her husband, Gerald Lewis (Gerald Lewis), took their 3-year-old son out of the fire and survived. Soon, the unharmed husband became the number one suspect in the police's eyes.

Gerrard has a history of domestic violence and has separated from his wife, who has applied for an injunction to keep her husband away from her. On the night of the fire, Gerald slept in the car, which was parked in front of the burning house. According to Gerald's own statement, he woke up in the middle of the night to find the living room on fire. He rushed in to see his wife busy putting out the fire on the sofa. He was going to go upstairs to find the children, but he saw his son standing in the hallway. He rushed out with his son-and the whole house suddenly burst into flames.

But at the scene of the fire, investigators found some clues that made it impossible for them to believe what Gerrard said. For example, one phenomenon that people pay attention to in the fire investigation is that the burnt wood will "alligatoring", like crocodile skin, and the wood in this house appears so low that it is suspected that something was thrown on the ground. In addition, the investigation team also found a number of V-shaped marks at the scene, and there was an experience at that time to use V-shaped marks to find the source of fire-if there is more than one V-shaped mark, investigators may think that there are more than two sources of fire. In addition, irregular burn marks appear on the floor of the house, extending from the living room to the corridor to the front door, which is seen as a mark left by the sprinkling of combustible liquid (pour pattern).

The location of "sprinkling marks" on the house plan (photo source: "Criminal investigation revelation") but the most important thing is that the fire spread so fast that it engulfed the whole house in just a few minutes, making it hard to believe it wasn't arson. Coupled with the fact that Gerrard had threatened to burn down the house, the investigation team did find a barrel of gasoline in his car. But Gerrard said he didn't do it. His son may have accidentally started the fire by playing with a lighter. There was gasoline in the car because it needed gasoline to clean the lawn mower in the backyard.

The police certainly did not change their judgment because of the suspect's side of the story, and prosecutors charged Gerrard with arson and six counts of first-degree murder and pursued the death penalty. In the prosecution's view, it is enough to check with the fire researcher and conclude that it is impossible for a child to play with a lighter to cause the same fire.

In 1991, at the invitation of prosecutors, arson researchers John Lentini (John Lentini) and John DeHaan (John Dehaan) went to the scene of the fire. From experience, they very much agree with the previous conclusions of the investigation team. As for how to verify it, the two found that there was an almost identical house next to the burning house (from the same period and the same builder), so they restored furniture and furnishings in the house. It even included several boxes of clothes on the ground-another adult victim in the fire, the legal sister of Gerald's wife Caroline, had just moved in and had not had time to put her clothes in the wardrobe.

In the eyes of the two experts, this is the perfect opportunity to break the lies of the suspect. They confidently lit the sofa at the simulation site with a lighter and estimated that it would take 15-20 minutes for the fire to spread to the entire house. As a result, the fire engulfed the house about four minutes later. After the firemen put out the fire, the researchers entered the simulation scene and were surprised to find "sprinkling marks", which are also continuous irregular marks, which are very similar to those found in the real scene. And they know they haven't spilled anything on the ground. In addition, v-shaped marks that have been used to locate the fire can also be seen everywhere.

When the sofa was lit, it was just a fire in the house. But when "flashover" occurs, every combustible surface exposed to thermal radiation in an enclosed space is ignited at the same time, that is, "the whole house is on fire". The researchers' original expectation of 15-20 minutes, and the actual 4 minutes, refers to the length of time from ignition to flash. They also noticed that the lower surface of the table was also scorched during flash, which had previously been thought to happen only if something (such as gasoline or other combustible liquid) was burning under the table.

Although the results were quite different from expectations, the researchers had not given up, thinking that if they were poured with gasoline and then ignited, it would be different from using a lighter to light the sofa. As a result, the simulation scene was restored and gasoline was sprinkled according to the capacity of the bucket in Gerrard's car. After the ignition, the researchers found that the fire spread at a very similar rate, and their experience was broken again.

After the experiment, it was clear that professionals could no longer provide the prosecution with testimony about Gerrard's arson, and the suspect was quickly released. Lentini said that had it not been for the simulation, he would have gone to court without doubt to testify that the fire was arson. We almost sent the suspect to the electric chair.

If there is no similar house nearby, of course, not every house that has a fire has a highly similar building next to it.

However, in order to distinguish between arson and accidents, there may be many fire scenes that need to be simulated, and there are probably many areas that need to be filled or modified by the word-of-mouth experience of investigators. In 2003, the United States Administration of Tobacco, Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) established the Fire Research Laboratory (Fire Research Laboratory) in Maryland.

This is a large facility that can test the burning of a variety of large-scale objects, such as burning down a three-story house, a warehouse, or a large motor vehicle. There are also many instruments that can accurately measure the data of the fire scene, such as flame temperature, heat release rate, smoke release and so on, so that researchers can analyze the fire under various conditions. Ten years after the facility was built, more than 1000 experiments were carried out here in 2013 alone.

Photo: ATFHQ via YouTube Lentini says there are about 500000 fires in the United States each year, of which about 10% are suspected of arson. If 5 per cent of the 50,000 suspicious fires were misjudged, that would be as many as 2500. Only by providing more sufficient scientific basis for fire investigators can misjudgments be reduced.

Source of the cover: MythBusters

Reference link:

Https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=6359

Https://www.discovery.com/shows/mythbusters/episodes/hollywood-on-trial

Https://www.scotsman.com/news/world/holy-smoke-cigarette-end-simply-cant-set-petrol-alight-2510940

Https://www.nature.com/articles/247405a0

Https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225761-100-arson-evidence-shot-down-in-flames/

Https://www.firescientist.com/Documents/TheLimeStreetFire-AnotherPerspective.pdf

Https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/10/16/Man-charged-with-setting-fire-that-kills-six-people/8232656049600/

Https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/episodes/bjt4ny/catching-killers-fire-investigation-season-2-ep-1

Https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/csi-meets-backdraft-inside-the-worlds-largest-fire-research-lab/2015/02/20/02069d18-b83f-11e4-9423-f3d0a1ec335c_story.html

Https://www.atf.gov/laboratories/fire-research-laboratory

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: global Science (ID:huanqiukexue), written by | Chestnut revision | clefable

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