The Lime Street Fire—A Major Turning Point

This chapter describes a pivotal case in the author's career involving a fire investigation in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1990. Initially asked to review a chemical analysis that erroneously identified gasoline, the author then re-examined the fire scene. While the scene initially appeared to show signs of arson, the author and his colleague, John DeHaan, conducted a test fire in a nearly identical house two doors down the street. The test fire reached flashover in less than four minutes and revealed that the fire patterns initially thought to indicate arson could occur naturally. This discovery led the author to cancel a planned deposition in which he would have testified against the defendant. This case led to personnel changes in the Fire Marshal's Laboratory after the director was unresponsive to warnings and the author alerted the media to ongoing issues. The Lime Street fire case became a turning point in fire investigation practices, challenging prevailing assumptions and emphasizing the need for empirical evidence. While it initially made the author unpopular among some colleagues, it ultimately contributed significantly to advancing the field of fire investigation.