The Storage Challenge

Over the last decade, technical investigations related to civil litigation have changed drastically.  Since the 2001 edition of NFPA 921, The Guide to Fire and Explosion Investigations, loss sites are now considered evidence.  Failure to allow other interested parties (such as potential plaintiffs and/or defendants) access to a loss site may jeopardize a case.  There are numerous cases throughout the country where summary judgments are being granted because a plaintiff and/or their agents failed to preserve a scene and/or its relevant evidence.

This new legal precedent has created great challenges to scene investigators and their clients.  On smaller losses, where a client may not wish to place interested parties on notice of a loss, they have a duty to preserve the evidence not only to support their opinion, but also to allow an adverse party to develop their own opinion independently.  On larger losses where interested parties do go to the scene, it is not unusual for adverse investigators to request large amounts of evidence only remotely related to the loss.

For example, in the past, a kitchen countertop fire involving a coffeemaker would only require securing the coffeemaker as evidence.  In today’s investigation, it is not uncommon to secure not only the coffeemaker, but the outlet it was plugged into, the circuit breaker that fed it, the countertop itself, the wall cabinets above it, the toaster plugged-in next to the coffeemaker, the paper towel holder, and the list goes on!