Rethinking Fire and Explosion Investigation
Rethinking Fire and Explosion Investigation challenges deeply rooted assumptions and invites readers to reconsider how fire and explosion investigations are approached, analyzed, and defended.
Rather than presenting investigation as a collection of fixed procedures or rules, this book examines the discipline through the lens of the scientific method, critical thinking, hypothesis development and testing, evidence evaluation, cognitive bias, professional competence, and technical reasoning.
Drawing on decades of professional experience and an international perspective, Heriberto Moreira Cornejo explores the evolution of fire investigation and the need to move beyond conclusions based primarily on intuition, tradition, or experience. The central argument is clear: modern investigators must be able not only to reach conclusions, but also to explain, test, justify, and technically defend the reasoning behind them.
The book critically examines the construction and evaluation of hypotheses, the interpretation of fire patterns and physical evidence, the management of uncertainty, the influence of cognitive bias, and the relationship between scientific reasoning and international professional standards. It also addresses one of the discipline’s most important challenges: distinguishing between experience-based confidence and conclusions that are genuinely supported by evidence.
Written for fire and explosion investigators, forensic professionals, criminalists, engineers, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, insurance professionals, educators, students, and other specialists involved in the analysis of fire incidents, this work is intended to strengthen scientific reasoning rather than prescribe a single investigative formula.
It is not a book about memorizing standards.
It is a book about learning to question, reason, test, and defend conclusions scientifically.
For professionals who believe that fire investigation must continue evolving toward greater rigor, transparency, and intellectual honesty, this book offers both a critical examination of the discipline and an invitation to rethink how we investigate.
Investigador Científico de Incendios y Explosiones
CFEI · CFII · CVFI
Perito Internacional / Director de pirolisis.com y DET Lautaro
Investigador, Divulgador Científico, Instructor y Conferencista Internacional
Digital Edition
ISBN: 978-956-03-0235-9