Development and Validation of a Method for Individualization of Middle Distillates and Kerosene Residues in Fire Debris

The proposed research will apply target compound analysis utilized for gasoline individualization to medium petroleum distillates (MPD) and kerosene which may be used as accelerants in arson cases. A major goal of this project is to establish analytical tools that provide a statistical evaluation for forensic comparison between ignitable liquid residues in fire debris and ignitable liquids in the possession of a suspect. No current database of high-resolution GCMS analyses is publicly available for statistical analysis so this research will facilitate analysis and yield backlog reduction.

ca/ncf