Fire investigation was historically plagued by myths like "concrete spalling means the floor was soaked in gasoline before being set on fire". Turns out, concrete just does that whenever it gets very hot, with or without an accelerant.
I trained as a Civ Eng in Plymouth (Devon, UK) and obviously ended up in IT (22 years as MD of an IT firm). It's quite wet, windy and the air is pretty salty in Plimuff. All of those factors scream: Bad for conc. if you don't allow for them. Also, steel is well known to get quite unhappy in the presence of salty water, if it isn't cared for properly. Concrete cancer is another exciting opportunity to contend with in the face of ... conditions.
Concrete is a marvellous material, it really is but it is a sodding complicated matrix of variously graded (sizes) stones (aggregate) and particular sands bound up in the cement plus some admixtures (stuff added for various reasons). The cement alone is properly complicated - clinker and that. When you mix the stuff up and pour it, it's a chemical reaction that happens and not simply drying. That's why it works underwater - what you are worrying about underwater is avoiding the finer materials being carried off before the stuff sets. In the air, you worry more about temperature effects on setting and wind causing the surface to dry too fast. The reaction is caused by water, so if the surface dries out, the reaction doesn't happen and you get ... spalling later in life.
I hope that the studies quoted in court relating to conc spalling, describe the precise conditions that the stuff was poured in. Care will be taken over the effects of admixtures and the temperatures, weather and other conditions that affect setting and curing of conc. Was gap grading of the agg. a factor perhaps? What is the agg. composition anyway, let alone its size distribution?
I could go on a lot, lot more and I'm not even close to being an expert. I can pour a decent 3-2-1 mix and expect it to do the job at home. My little DIY conc related projects tend to work rather well - my garden is quite challenging topographically.
I hope I'm getting across that concrete is rather complicated. It's not a simple material just as balsa and elm are both "wood" but have very, very different properties.
I think that a lot of people are just bloodthirsty and once they’ve categorized somebody as evil then anything can be done to them. Unbelievable.
*mineral spirits
But thanks! "Animal spirits" intrigued me, so I read the entire article. A clusterfuck from top to bottom, particularly the bit about the cracked glass patterns... something better explained by thermal shock of cold water from fire-hoses on hot glass, and not the use of BBQ lighter fluid as an accelerant.
Haunting words: "I almost sent a man to die based on theories that were a load of crap."
That was a thing? Was/is there any actual expert involved ever in these claims?
I am more worried about all the claims that one field expert can look at someone and tell if they are drunk, using specific substances or had a head trauma. Doctors can’t do that but I guess… there are “experts.”
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence/execute...
This is what has condemned innocents throughout history to death, torture, and prison. His history is what got him convicted, in my opinion. So many people forget to shield themselves from future indictment by acting "normal" in the present.
Unfortunately, a lot of fire source experts were trained based on a mishmash of folk theories about arson, many of which have been subsequently disproven by scientific testing. There have been some improvements over the last decade or two, but the field is still heavily contaminated by junk science.
I’ve always been surprised that USA could claim “It’s Al Queida” in the first 6hrs of the Twin Towers falling, and the French police could say “No relation with the wave of terrorism” in the first two hours of Notre Dame burning.