A fire investigation is not complete without a Fire Investigation Report. There is a lot of preparation that goes into writing any kind of report. To write a good Fire Investigation Report you must follow some Fire Investigation Report Guidelines. Collect all the information that you need to write the report and compile it in proper order. Information in a Fire Investigation Report should ideally be arranged chronologically.
A Fire Investigation Report should ideally begin with the date when the fire started and the fire unit was dispatched to the scene of the fire. These could be different. It should be followed by the address of the scene of the fire. Mention if the fire has been doused or is still in progress. You must also give a physical description of the objects that were burnt. This description must be detailed. Include the dimensions of these objects, if possible. You must also describe the property or the building that is damaged by the fire and mention the access points. If there was lightning involved or other environmental conditions that started the fire, mention it. Identify the person or the body that requested help and the fire unit that was dispatched, if you have that information.
Now we move on to the actual investigation. Identify the factors or the pattern that helps you identify the point where the fire originated. Then you must establish the cause of the fire. There could be two reasons to consider; an accident or criminal activity. Accidental fire may be caused by any number of things. You need to establish the point of origin of the fire to establish the accidental cause. There may have been problems with the utilities that caused the fire. This is something that you will have to establish. You will have to zero in on the one cause that contributed to the fire by a process of elimination.
In case of criminal activity, the investigation is a little more painstaking. Your report must include the physical evidence at the scene and the observations of the investigator. Here you may have to look out for evidence of multiple fires and then substantiate that claim. Then there has to be a process of elimination of natural causes, mechanical causes, and accidental causes.
In a fire investigation, you must also identify witnesses and suspects. You must be able to identify the witness, the location where the interview took place, where and how. The witness must be referred to by their last name throughout a Fire Investigation Report. The witness’s statement should be taken down verbatim in the report, once thorough questioning is done. The same goes for suspects.
Here is a preview of this free Fire Investigation Report Template in MS Word.
Here is the download link for this Fire Investigation Report Template.
A Fire Investigation Report should have documentation like diagrams, photographs, and evidence found at the scene of the fire. A good Fire Investigation Report should have all the answers to any pertinent question regarding a fire. It should be grammatically correct with no spelling or punctuation errors. It should be accurate and concise.
