Burn Patterns News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The building. does that tell you anything? >> well, the way they get to that point is to go by burn patterns. first they look at an area that's burned the least and work their way to the area burned the most. the area of origin is a general area and that's what they were speaking to, an area of origin. they are subsequently going to try to refine that down to a point of origin. once you determine the point of origin, they would then go through a process of eliminating various causes to determine the cause of the fire. >> this is going to be so difficult for them, because the building is unstab...

>> when we look at the pictures, you see just how widespread the flames are in this really big building. we're also learning that fire crews discovered steel that was twisted and wrapped in the back of the building. could that be a clue into the fire's origin, perhaps? >> you know, it's very difficult to determine that early in the stages of this fire. they're going to have to again methodically disassemble the fire scene to be able to get a clear picture of exactly what occurred. they'll look at burn patterns, fire patterns, they'll look at everything when necessithey go . so it's hard in thi...

D.c. any time -- >> when you say d.c. you mean the white house? >> right. it's close to that. so they're going to be called in to look at whatever possibilities this may have if any, towards anything federal. the potential for organized crime based on the fact what this guy might have been involved with as far as his company. but really i think the thing is it was apparent they used accelerants to keep the fire going in the house and to have it spread quickly. the atf is really the experts in that field, in accelerants and any type of -- >> burn patterns. what is a burn pattern? >> whether it'...

To 1200 degrees fahrenheit, it's got enough energy to ignite everything below it. every exposed surface catches on fire. >> the aftermath of a fire like this will often leave behind irregular burn patterns on the floor of a structure, much like the ones investigators found in the willis fire. >> you will find patterns in the room that look like you would imagine a floor and lower walls would look if they had been exposed to the fire from a liquid accelerant such as gasoline which had been poured. >> this phenomenon is known as flashover. it is called flashover because the fire gets so hot that...

Minutes, this fire reaches temperatures so hot that it begins to burn down. >> radiation goes in all directions. including down. and when the temperature of that hot gas layer gets to about 1100 to 1200 degrees fahrenheit, it's got enough energy to ignite everything below it. every exposed surface catches on fire. >> the aftermath of a fire like this will often leave behind irregular burn patterns on the floor of a structure, much like the ones investigators found in the willis fire. >> you will find patterns in the room that look like you would imagine a floor and lower walls would look if th...