A fire erupted in one of the of a tilt-up commercial building.  After the fire was extinguished, the fire department discovered the corps of a father and son in the loft above the office in his shop.

We investigated this fire and readily determined that it was arson and murder.  A pool of gasoline had been poured onto the floor inside the loft.  This pool was connected by a trail of gasoline to another pool outside the door to the loft.  This pool was connected to a final pool of gasoline at the base of the stairs to the loft.  Once ignited, this gasoline would create a wall of flame that blocked off all escape from the loft.

We also modeled the fire growth rate, the smoke production rate, and the CO production rate.  From this we determined that the fire in the loft would have flashed-over before the man and his son died from smoke / CO inhalation.  We also determined that a properly functioning smoke alarm would have alerted them to the danger in time to escape, if they had anywhere there could have run.