Fire brigade reports and investigation in Italy: procedures, statistics and real fire description

The determination of the causes of fire requires extremely complex investigations, because fire tends to destroy or make unrecognizable elements that could be traced back to its origin and development. Fire Brigade Reports contain the first direct information concerning the description of a fire event. However, they cannot have usually exhaustive information concer ning the causes and development of fire events, the damages of constructions and so on. The paper illustrates the procedures generally applied by the Italian Fire Brigades to describe a fire event in the technical fire brigade reports, with particular reference to those provided by the Fire Investigation Team (Nucleo Investigativ o Antincendio – NI A) . Some statistical data based on the fire brigade reports are also shown and discussed.