Fire accident investigator Li Xinggang went in and out of the fire scene in 17 years, looking for the "true culprit" of the fire, so that people can be alert and the problem can be improved.
Silent dialogue between "Holmes" on the fire site and the ruins
The 20-square-meter hut was licked by the tongue of fire, and the burnt smell and helplessness were heavily suppressed. It was supported by the dark load-bearing wall. In the eyes of others, this former home is undoubtedly in ruins.
Li Xinggang carried the toolbox, crossed the cordon, and walked cautiously into the debris on the ground. The water stains left by the fire rescue were wrapped in ashes and soaked his trousers.
Looking around the house, Li Xinggang quickly locked a corner, where the mottled marks on the wall were more obvious than elsewhere, and the remaining wood bookcases were more carbonized.
Li Xinggang knows in his heart.
To find the trace and let Ashes "talk", his task is to go straight to the fire point and find the "true culprit" of the fire.
This is done not only to find out the reason behind the fire, but also to let people learn from it and avoid similar accidents from happening again.
As a fire accident investigation engineer, as long as he stepped into the fire scene, he had to give an explanation to the victim and the public, and to find out the "true culprit" without questioning the bottom line, Li Xinggang felt that he could not even pass the hurdle in his heart.
Explore the answers through clues
Li Xinggang is 42 years old this year, his hair is more than half a year old, and his colleagues joked from time to time, "You are white for Huozha." He smiled after hearing this.
The way colleagues met him to greet him was also a bit special, "You have been out recently, and it seems that the fire is well controlled."
Indeed, as a fire accident investigation engineer in the Legal and Social Fire Fighting Division of the Fire Rescue Division of Haidian District, Beijing, Li Xinggang spends most of his working time out of the office. His battlefield is in the ruins and above the wreckage of the fire.
After a serious fire, only dark walls and messy wreckage are left at the scene, and the fire fighting process will inevitably cause damage to the scene.
Where is the fire?
What was the cause of the fire?
Many unanswered questions require fire accident investigators to cross the cordon, carefully distinguish every piece of broken metal, every piece of burnt wire, and search for answers through clues.
Li Xinggang is a history major. After graduating from university in 2002, he was admitted to the Beijing Fire Brigade of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force (now the Beijing Fire and Rescue Brigade). After half a year of militarized management training and more than one year of basic fire rescue squadron training In 2004, he entered the Fire Investigation Department and became a fire accident investigator.
"Boldly hypothesize and carefully verify." Li Xinggang feels that whether it is studying history or silently talking to the fire scene, two industries that seem to be far apart actually adhere to the same important principle-telling evidence.
Regardless of whether it is human or physical evidence, a single statement is unreliable. The traces seem to be fixed, but sometimes they "lie"-fire fighting and personnel evacuation may cause serious damage to the scene and interfere with fire investigations. The staff’s judgment; the original placement of items, the switching of household appliances, and even the wind direction outside the window at the time of the incident may also lead the investigation in the wrong direction.
Li Xinggang had been misled. Traces on the scene told him that the fire was under the window sill, but other traces also showed that the fire had spread from another direction.
Contradictory traces of physical evidence require him to find more evidence to corroborate or overthrow it.
The causes of fires are complicated, and there will not be two fires the same in the world.
In Li Xinggang's view, any fire site, as large as tens of thousands of square meters or as small as a few square meters, generally has only one fire site as long as it is not caused by man-made arson or explosion.
It is like the "seven inches" of the truth about fire. Finding it accurately is the basis of fire investigation and the basic skills an experienced fire investigator must possess.
Accumulate experience on fire ground
In the late 1990s, it was the first time that a fire investigation major appeared in a university in my country. More practical theories depended on the years of exploration and accumulation of predecessors in the fire field.
At the beginning of his career, Li Xinggang, with his previous professional training knowledge, followed his predecessors into the arena as an assistant, directly confused, "It's all gone, it's all wreckage, no way to start." But the master often only needs to scan a circle. You can have a general direction.
At that time, he felt that his master was "hot eyes and golden eyes."
After nearly two years of "more running" and "more enlightenment" on the fire ground, Li Xing really understood just now that behind the master's keenness is the close logical judgment polished by experience-the collapse of the wooden structure after the fire is traceable. The degree of carbonization varies, and the serious point generally points to the point of fire; it is also deformed and discolored metal, but the slight difference in the degree of damage is material evidence that the scene can "talk".
"These traces are there, but if you just look and listen, and don't find the rules yourself, the next time you go to the scene, your brain will still be blank." Five years ago, Ma Bo came from the squadron to the Haidian District Fire Rescue Detachment and followed Li Xinggang. Studying fire accident investigation, I also experienced Master’s dazedness at one time, and Li Xinggang passed on the experience to his apprentices.
In the same vein, most of Li Xinggang's experience also came from the fire scene. During this period, he was relieved of the truth after hesitated, and he also regretted that he did not dare to forget it.
During the first few years of working independently, Li Xinggang was impressed by a scene.
It was a bungalow in Daxing District that caught fire.
Rescuers found a pair of dead mothers and daughters in the house. They knelt on their knees and lay face down by the bed. There were no traces of fire on their bodies. The preliminary judgment was that they died of excessive smoke inhalation.
However, two days later, the autopsy report showed that there was a bleeding spot in the heart of the two, which belonged to homicide, and the fire was likely to be the suspect's destruction of the body.
The public security department carried out further investigation and tracking. Not long after the suspect was arrested and brought to justice, he also confessed to the crime of murder and arson.
Although the case was solved, Li Xinggang recalled that as soon as he saw the remains at the scene, he had doubts in his heart-the fire was right by the bed, but the mother and daughter did not escape.
"If I had a lot of experience at the time, maybe I could tell at a glance that they were dead before the fire broke out, the truth would come sooner, and the suspect would be arrested sooner."
Li Xinggang regarded this incident as a wake-up call and kept admonishing himself that he could be more careful, serious, and persistent.
Years later, he once again encountered the scene of deja vu.
In the self-built house in the orchard in winter, the corpses of the mother and son had been scorched. The investigators on the scene initially determined that the fire ignited debris and caused a fire.
However, Li Xinggang and his colleagues felt that something was wrong. Even if the family did not have time to escape in their sleep, it was unlikely that they would all lie on the bed neatly.
While continuing to investigate the scene, he found a phone number written on the door panel.
"The mother of a migrant worker with three children and no relatives or friends in Beijing, then who is the phone number written on the door?"
This time, he did not let go of the details, and immediately informed the police of the clues.
When contacting the phone number owner, the other party's evasive remarks caught the attention of the police. After further investigation and interrogation, it was confirmed that the number owner was the suspect who committed the homicide and then set fire.
Refusal to just taste
In the eyes of the apprentice Ma Bo, Li Xinggang's seriousness and enthusiasm have reached the extreme, "He refuses to taste it, and he has to go to the bottom of everything."
For example, in recent years, there have been frequent fire accidents of electric vehicles and electric bicycles. Li Xinggang and his colleagues will learn battery production and installation technology; fires caused by electrical circuits are still the main cause of residents’ fires. He needs to understand the continuous update and iteration. Household appliances, ruins and ashes are his first-hand lessons.
In addition to physical evidence, personal evidence is also the key to fire investigations. Long-term work experience allowed him to sum up a set of his own methodology: "What people ask what you see." "Everyone looks at fire from different angles and focuses. , The degree of reduction in what you see is also different."
To this end, Li Xinggang wanted to ask in sufficient detail, "Where were you at that time? What time was it? What was the light like? Did you see smoke or open flames, how high was the flame? How wide was the smoke? ?"
Even in the same accident, asking different subjects, the questions are not the same. Li Xinggang gave an example. After an explosion accident in a university chemical laboratory, the focus of the questioning project teacher was on the experimental materials, the type, nature, and quantity of the agent, and the experiment was asked. Staff, it is necessary to focus on the details of the experimental operation and whether the operation is in accordance with the specifications.
Li Xinggang felt that he couldn't get through the hurdle in his heart when he couldn't ask clearly.
In a fire, two dry goods warehouses caught fire and the business suffered serious losses.
Through on-site investigations, Li Xinggang quickly found the fire, but the cause of the accident is still unresolved. Li Xinggang was uneasy-the warehouse near the relocation had already been switched off and there was no circuit failure; through monitoring, the stranded personnel were ruled out. There is a possibility of smoking in the warehouse; there are dry goods such as mushrooms in the warehouse, and there is no spontaneous combustion condition.
What is the "True Murder"?
After going in and out of the warehouse several times, he finally found that a packet of powdery substance in the corner of the warehouse was suspicious. Although it was burned almost by the fire, it was clearly different from food.
It took a long time for the warehouse owner to recognize that this was a desiccant he had placed specially.
According to laboratory tests, this package of desiccant contained flammable chemicals. Under conditions of appropriate temperature and humidity, it became the culprit of the fire.
When entering and leaving the fire scene in 2017, Li Xinggang’s investigation results are varied. Some of the reasons for the fire seem to be "unexpected and unpredictable", but they are worthy of everyone's attention: a family’s balcony caught fire. Unexpectedly, the "perpetrator" was a crystal ball on the window sill. It is like a convex lens, the focal point heats up and eventually ignites the surrounding debris; there is also a car seat on fire, and the seat automatically moves back after the passenger gets off the car, squeezing the lighter ignition button that accidentally fell below.
Investigate to alert people
Li Xinggang’s colleagues often say that fire accident investigation is the most basic post in the fire and rescue agency, but it is also the post that requires the longest working time outside.
After a major accident, Li Xinggang is often transferred to the task force, and it is normal not to go home for half a month or a month.
Even in normal times, the phone has to be turned on for 24 hours.
Fires happen by accident. Whether the investigators are resting or sleeping, the fire is the order.
This is a job that needs to endure loneliness, and it is a huge double test for the investigator's physiology and psychology.
One winter a few years ago, a house in Haidian District caught fire. The preliminary judgment was caused by a short circuit of wires. However, to make a final conclusion, more conclusive factual evidence is needed.
Fuse usually occurs after a wire is short-circuited. Finding the molten beads formed after the wire is blown on site is the key to determining the cause of the fire.
For this reason, Li Xinggang and his colleagues were soaked in the cold water of the twelfth month of winter for three or four hours under the lighting lamp. They were shaking with the cold. After cleaning out the wires of several tens of meters, they finally found that it was only half a grain of rice. Of molten beads.
There was another fire. The point of the fire was in the underground space. The smell of the burnt items did not dissipate for a long time. Li Xinggang was wearing a gas mask, goggles, and ventilation equipment has been running at the exit, but as long as he worked for more than 10 minutes, the tears would stop. Keep flowing out.
The on-site investigation by the task force lasted for nearly a month. Mabo still remembered that after the mission, Master got pneumonia and was hospitalized.
Occasionally there will be trauma.
When extracting evidence is needed, it is common to move furniture debris, collapsed wooden structures, and metal frames. Skin scratches and bumps are inevitable.
Because of this, many full-time fire accident investigators will consider transferring to other positions after working for a few years.
In fact, after one year of work, Li Xinggang took the first place in the “3+x” skill contest of the Beijing fire protection system, won the third class, and had the opportunity to work in the agency.
However, after becoming a fire accident investigator, his understanding of life and people gradually changed.
When disaster strikes, people are busy escaping, busy with rescue, some people have passed away due to fire, some are destroyed, some are in jail, and some are depressed. It is full of joys and sorrows of all kinds of situations.
Li Xinggang felt that he was calmer and more transparent than when he was just working.
The silent dialogue with the ruins of the fire site was his most calm and restrained moment-he had a responsibility in his hand, to explain to the deceased, to the victim, to the public, and to himself.
In Li Xinggang's view, behind major fires, there are often multiple responsibilities involved, including ineffective supervision, private transactions, quality problems, and long-term disregard for security risks.
The investigation of the cause of the fire is to alert people and to improve these problems step by step.
For example, more than ten years ago, residential buildings spread quickly after catching fire. Later, after investigation, it was found that the crux of the building was the low fire resistance level of the building's external insulation materials.
In the past few years, the housing construction department has upgraded the requirements, and the situation of "burning even camps" has almost disappeared.
Li Xinggang said that progress is happening little by little, and this is the meaning of his work.
Beijing News reporter Zhang Jingshu