ASTM E1188
Definition
Standard Practice for Collection and Preservation of Information and Physical Items by a Technical Investigator, the companion evidence-preservation standard to NFPA 921 governing fire-debris packaging, photography, and chain-of-custody documentation.
- Full title
- Collection and Preservation of Information and Physical Items
- Companion standard
- NFPA 921 (fire investigation guide)
- Covers
- Packaging, photography, chain of custody
- Field
- Fire debris evidence handling
Common questions
How does ASTM E1188 relate to NFPA 921?+
NFPA 921 sets out the overall methodology for investigating a fire scene, while E1188 is the narrower companion standard focused specifically on how items and information are documented, packaged, and preserved once identified, so the two are typically applied together rather than as alternatives.
Why does fire debris packaging get its own dedicated standard?+
Ignitable liquid residues are volatile and easily lost or cross-contaminated if debris is packaged incorrectly, so E1188's procedures for airtight containers and documentation exist specifically to prevent evaporation loss and contamination before laboratory analysis.
Related terms
- Backdraft
- A deflagration event triggered when air is suddenly admitted to a compartment where a fire has been oxygen-depleted but has continued to...
- Equivalence Ratio
- The ratio of actual fuel-to-air ratio to the stoichiometric fuel-to-air ratio. An equivalence ratio above 1 (fuel-rich) produces CO, soot, and unburned...
- Fire Tetrahedron
- The model of sustained combustion requiring four concurrent elements: fuel, oxidiser, heat, and an uninhibited radical chain reaction. Replacing the older fire...
- Flashover
- The near-simultaneous ignition of all exposed combustible surfaces in a compartment, occurring when the upper gas layer reaches approximately 600°C and radiative...
- Incomplete Combustion
- Oxidation of fuel under oxygen-limited conditions, producing carbon monoxide and soot (particulate carbon) rather than the complete combustion products CO2 and H2O....
- Levoglucosan
- 1,6-anhydro-beta-D-glucopyranose, a diagnostic pyrolysis product of cellulose (wood, cotton, paper) produced above approximately 250°C. Used in atmospheric chemistry as a biomass-burning tracer...
- Negative Corpus
- The discredited practice of concluding incendiary fire cause by eliminating all identifiable accidental causes without positive physical evidence of intentional fire-setting. NFPA...
- NFPA 921
- US National Fire Protection Association Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations. The internationally accepted methodology Indian fire investigators and SFSL fire divisions...
- Pyrolysis
- The thermal decomposition of cellulose in paper at approximately 150 to 300 degrees Celsius, disrupting glycosidic bonds and releasing water and carbon...