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5 September 2025
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Featured FRI Magazine article: Wildfire investigations - the cold case by Arnold Swart
This area was burned in a wildfire in 2009. Photo taken in 2013. Origin of fire was against mountain in the background
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Albertinia in the Southern Cape. Area burned in 2013, photo taken 2015
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Aerial photos from Directorate: Survey and Mapping
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This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Wildfire investigations - the cold case written by Arnold Swart, Chuma Safaris and Conservation Services (FRI Vol 3 no 8). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Wildfire investigations - the cold case
By Arnold Swart, Chuma Safaris and Conservation Services
In this article we look at wildfire investigations focusing on the cold case; finding the course and origin and spread of a fire that has burned in a natural environment.
The preferred method according to textbooks would be to get the investigator or investigation team out to the scene as soon as possible even when the fire is still burning and the first respondents are still on scene as has been explained in some previous issue of this magazine.
The objectives of this would then be:
The work methods are properly set out in textbooks like:
Many others just do a proper internet survey on the specific topic of the fire data you are investigating.
You can, during ‘hot cases,’ crawl on your knees in the black looking for small pieces of evidence, take close up photos, measure up distances and directions, use computer programs; all if you have fresh evidence in front of you.
But, in the South African context, you get scenarios where a fire or fires get fought and losses incurred by landowners. They in turn get in touch with their insurance company and or a lawyer. The normal meetings follow and then suddenly five to seven years later, all the issues come to a point and either an arbitration case or a court case is scheduled.
This is when they find out that nobody has determined or remember, where did it start, how did this fire start, who may be responsible for the start of the fire, how did it spread and who did what to control the fire.
The information needed to be obtained and organised in such a method that the legal team can use it in a court of law in arguments and reasoning. It also needs to reflect the truth of the incident as it has happened many years ago and that means that the investigator must be able to be objective in retrieving the evidence and record it as such in a proper report.
This is called the cold case.
All evidence is gone and even the eyewitnesses are gone or has forgotten about it or confuse fires with one another. The Government agencies that worked on the fire have either not kept records or have lost them with a change in personnel. Or you may be lucky and still receive information from people that were involved with the fire and can trace old data from the weather service.
How do you go about finding substantial evidence to present to the legal team? Evidence that will stand up in court; evidence that can be proven beyond reasonable doubt as the true reflection of what has happened so many years ago. The grass and trees have grown again the last three, five or seven rainy seasons and the soot and evidence has washed away. Trees have grown over burn marks and there is no evidence as to which year's burn marks you see in front of you. In commercial plantations the trees have been harvested already.
So let’s start at the beginning.
I am a wildfire investigator with about 30 years nature conservation and wildfire experience. I usually get these ‘cold cases’ that are about three to seven years cold. There are always one or more parties that refuse to talk to me when I enquire about certain evidence because of the pending court case and the D date is usually just around the corner. This all spells frustration.
Where do you start with the investigation and what information are we looking for, when it is this old and cold?
Firstly, the client and or legal team should supply you with everything they have on file related to the incident. You should be led by the requirements of the legal team, focusing on loopholes and the issues that they need answered, according to the summons brief. This should include maps, reports, eyewitness names, landowners and neighbours’ contact details, the case at hand including the accusations or problems that the other party had with your client or who the client is defending.
Get proper weather data of the exact date of the origin of the fire, 24 hours before the ignition date and the entire duration of the fire.
Get hold of a GIS map or satellite image dating back to the time frame just before the fire and then every pass of the satellite. This will help with the plotting of the possible origin of the fire and also the spread of the fire. Here images of change in land use backdated to before the incident and after the incident could assist. However, this could be costly if the time frame is very long.
With the satellite images at hand, go and visit the potential ignition sites and see if ignition and spread would still be possible. Remember that roads, houses and electricity supply lines do not disappear fast and might still be in the area.
Trace the eyewitnesses and first responders and try and get them to reconstruct the scene for you as they remember it. Make sure they are talking about the correct fire as fires tend to follow the same patterns every couple of years.
There would have been technicians involved should the case include electricity supply lines (transmission and distribution). Try and get their names and any work cards and records dating back to the exact date/s. These are official records and you might have to get special permission to get copies of these work cards and reports. Make sure you have the copies certified at the police station.
There would be pilot reports, dispatch notes and incident command planning and operational reports, if there were aircraft and dispatch centres and or an incident command centre involved. It is very important that you get hold of that and very handy in reconstructing the scene on paper.
Remember that eyewitnesses can include anyone from fire fighters, managers, farmers and their labourers, traffic police, curious onlookers from the local town; just ask around in restaurants, bars, garages, take away restaurants grocery shops, hardware shops. Be patient and make sure these are reliable stories that you can follow up so as to not waste a lot of time.
The local community paper archive and journalists are good sources of facts as they would have covered the story.
Follow up the information obtained from these sources and verify this to be true, before you put it to the legal team.
Landowners or insurance lawyers should get hold of a wildfire investigator first thing. Once the data is gathered and filed it can wait for the case to surface in years to come but at least you have reliable and useful data.
Ensure that the investigator knows the specific type of wildfire and the possible driving forces of that type of fuel and fire. There are differences between grass fires, fynbos brush fires, commercial plantation fires, possible arson cases and other possible ignition sources. Ask him/her for a comprehensive curriculum vitae (CV) before you appoint the person. Thorough training and experience helps a lot in interpreting data and the fire.
Keeping records are like insurance. You gather the information every month and every fire season and then store it in a box in the archive. You might not use it for the next five or more years. Then one day a lawyer’s letter arrives and if you do not have the information, that can prove your side of the story, you have either lost it and/ or it is going to cost you a lot of money proving your case. The best solution is to keep as much information and records about each and every incident on your property and ensure your filing system is neat.
What information do we need for these cold cases
I hope this has helped with the one big question we always get, “What do I do now to solve this fire case, which everybody forgot about until now?”
Wildfire investigations - the cold case
By Arnold Swart, Chuma Safaris and Conservation Services
In this article we look at wildfire investigations focusing on the cold case; finding the course and origin and spread of a fire that has burned in a natural environment.
The preferred method according to textbooks would be to get the investigator or investigation team out to the scene as soon as possible even when the fire is still burning and the first respondents are still on scene as has been explained in some previous issue of this magazine.
The objectives of this would then be:
- To secure the area where it is assumed that the fire has started and start searching for evidence and clues as to the possible causes of the fire. There are different methods of getting the data depending on how cold the case is, up to a point. Remember time destroys evidence as in any criminal case.
- Speak to first responders and eyewitnesses to get the real story first hand.
- Map and collect evidence according to set standards.
- Draft a proper report concerning their findings together with all evidence, maps and relevant detail.
- Present this report and evidence to the relevant authorities or legal counsel for action.
The work methods are properly set out in textbooks like:
- De Haan JD 2007 - Kirk's Fire Investigation. Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River New Jersey.
- Goldammer JG and Cornelius de Ronde 2004 - Wildland Fire Management handbook for Sub-Sahara Africa. Southern Africa Institute of Forestry, Menlo Park, South Africa
- National Wildfire Coordinating Group 2005, Wildfire Origin and Cause Determination Handbook
- Cote AE and Linville Jim L 6th ed, Fire Protection Handbook
- De Ronde C and Goldammer JG 2015. Wildfire investigation. Guideline for the practitioners, Global Fire Monitoring Centre. Forestry Books Remagen-Oberwinter Germany.
- Website: Interfire online - investigating wildfire
Many others just do a proper internet survey on the specific topic of the fire data you are investigating.
You can, during ‘hot cases,’ crawl on your knees in the black looking for small pieces of evidence, take close up photos, measure up distances and directions, use computer programs; all if you have fresh evidence in front of you.
But, in the South African context, you get scenarios where a fire or fires get fought and losses incurred by landowners. They in turn get in touch with their insurance company and or a lawyer. The normal meetings follow and then suddenly five to seven years later, all the issues come to a point and either an arbitration case or a court case is scheduled.
This is when they find out that nobody has determined or remember, where did it start, how did this fire start, who may be responsible for the start of the fire, how did it spread and who did what to control the fire.
The information needed to be obtained and organised in such a method that the legal team can use it in a court of law in arguments and reasoning. It also needs to reflect the truth of the incident as it has happened many years ago and that means that the investigator must be able to be objective in retrieving the evidence and record it as such in a proper report.
This is called the cold case.
All evidence is gone and even the eyewitnesses are gone or has forgotten about it or confuse fires with one another. The Government agencies that worked on the fire have either not kept records or have lost them with a change in personnel. Or you may be lucky and still receive information from people that were involved with the fire and can trace old data from the weather service.
How do you go about finding substantial evidence to present to the legal team? Evidence that will stand up in court; evidence that can be proven beyond reasonable doubt as the true reflection of what has happened so many years ago. The grass and trees have grown again the last three, five or seven rainy seasons and the soot and evidence has washed away. Trees have grown over burn marks and there is no evidence as to which year's burn marks you see in front of you. In commercial plantations the trees have been harvested already.
So let’s start at the beginning.
I am a wildfire investigator with about 30 years nature conservation and wildfire experience. I usually get these ‘cold cases’ that are about three to seven years cold. There are always one or more parties that refuse to talk to me when I enquire about certain evidence because of the pending court case and the D date is usually just around the corner. This all spells frustration.
Where do you start with the investigation and what information are we looking for, when it is this old and cold?
Firstly, the client and or legal team should supply you with everything they have on file related to the incident. You should be led by the requirements of the legal team, focusing on loopholes and the issues that they need answered, according to the summons brief. This should include maps, reports, eyewitness names, landowners and neighbours’ contact details, the case at hand including the accusations or problems that the other party had with your client or who the client is defending.
Get proper weather data of the exact date of the origin of the fire, 24 hours before the ignition date and the entire duration of the fire.
Get hold of a GIS map or satellite image dating back to the time frame just before the fire and then every pass of the satellite. This will help with the plotting of the possible origin of the fire and also the spread of the fire. Here images of change in land use backdated to before the incident and after the incident could assist. However, this could be costly if the time frame is very long.
With the satellite images at hand, go and visit the potential ignition sites and see if ignition and spread would still be possible. Remember that roads, houses and electricity supply lines do not disappear fast and might still be in the area.
Trace the eyewitnesses and first responders and try and get them to reconstruct the scene for you as they remember it. Make sure they are talking about the correct fire as fires tend to follow the same patterns every couple of years.
There would have been technicians involved should the case include electricity supply lines (transmission and distribution). Try and get their names and any work cards and records dating back to the exact date/s. These are official records and you might have to get special permission to get copies of these work cards and reports. Make sure you have the copies certified at the police station.
There would be pilot reports, dispatch notes and incident command planning and operational reports, if there were aircraft and dispatch centres and or an incident command centre involved. It is very important that you get hold of that and very handy in reconstructing the scene on paper.
Remember that eyewitnesses can include anyone from fire fighters, managers, farmers and their labourers, traffic police, curious onlookers from the local town; just ask around in restaurants, bars, garages, take away restaurants grocery shops, hardware shops. Be patient and make sure these are reliable stories that you can follow up so as to not waste a lot of time.
The local community paper archive and journalists are good sources of facts as they would have covered the story.
Follow up the information obtained from these sources and verify this to be true, before you put it to the legal team.
Landowners or insurance lawyers should get hold of a wildfire investigator first thing. Once the data is gathered and filed it can wait for the case to surface in years to come but at least you have reliable and useful data.
Ensure that the investigator knows the specific type of wildfire and the possible driving forces of that type of fuel and fire. There are differences between grass fires, fynbos brush fires, commercial plantation fires, possible arson cases and other possible ignition sources. Ask him/her for a comprehensive curriculum vitae (CV) before you appoint the person. Thorough training and experience helps a lot in interpreting data and the fire.
Keeping records are like insurance. You gather the information every month and every fire season and then store it in a box in the archive. You might not use it for the next five or more years. Then one day a lawyer’s letter arrives and if you do not have the information, that can prove your side of the story, you have either lost it and/ or it is going to cost you a lot of money proving your case. The best solution is to keep as much information and records about each and every incident on your property and ensure your filing system is neat.
What information do we need for these cold cases
- Maps depicting where, who, what has happened and who did what, when and where.
- Personnel records of all personnel and resources, that was at the fire and what their jobs were.
- Weather data for example temperature, relative humidity, wind strength and direction. The weather station should be as close as possible to the origin of the fire or at least within the same geographical area.
- Maps and description of firebreaks.
- Schedules of road and veld management like alien eradication programs, control burns, game or livestock stocking rates in certain camps.
- Public access routes and servitudes.
- Records and maps of old wildfires in that exact area
I hope this has helped with the one big question we always get, “What do I do now to solve this fire case, which everybody forgot about until now?”