Detection of accelerants is often critical in proving a fire was intentional.
Establishing a fire was intentionally set is not an easy task and hinges on the preservation
of accelerant present in fire debris. Various accelerants have previously been studied
using the advanced distillation method to get fractional composition information. The
resulting fractions from advanced distillations were compared to evaporation and burn
samples to determine if there were any similarities.
In this work, a series of distillations were performed using regular and premium
gasoline. Samples of fractions and pot residues were taken at various volumes. Gasoline
was used to do evaporations and controlled burns. All experimental samples generated
were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Chromatograms of gasoline
are very complex and determining if two samples are similar is difficult by visual
comparison. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to relate different gasoline
samples together and distinguish between other samples.
PCA was able to distinguish distillation fractions, which has not been done in the
past. The evaporations were most comparable to the pot residues taken over the course of
a distillation. The distillation fractions and pot residues were not significantly similar to
any of the burns. Burns are variable by nature, and it was difficult to replicate burns even
when all factors were kept the same. While the initial burn data did not show a
relationship to the distillation data, this method shows the potential of using advanced
distillation pot residues to relate weathered samples to their original sources.