Fatal fires: The effects of pre-existing trauma to burned soft tissues and skeletal remains
Elayne J Pope USA
Chief Medical Examiner (T-OCME), USA
: Forensic Toxicol Pharmacol 2015, 4:4
Abstract
T he presence of injuries to a body prior to the fire produces a unique burn pattern that alters the normal burn sequence. Wounds compromise the integrity of the skin, subcutaneous fat, muscle, and in some cases, bone. Deeper tissues of the subcutaneous fat split and produce rendered fat, which can sustain the fire. Wounds to the body are classified as penetrating trauma (gunshot wound & sharp force trauma) and broken bones (gunshot wound & blunt force trauma). Penetrating injuries affect the layers of skin, subcutaneous fat, muscle, and sometimes bone; leaving tool marks and fractures. These injuries alter the burn pattern, leaving permanent evidence of the injury. For the extremities, traumatic injuries to bones (fractures) result in limb deformation and shortening along with abnormal burn patterns to the fractured ends. Traumatic injury to the head results in early burning of the wounded site, which induces early heat-related colour changes to the injured bone, and in some cases, traumatic fractures into unburned portions of the skull (cranial base), which remains protected and can be examined at autopsy. Forensic Anthropologists can assist the Medical Examiner in the analysis of burned skeletal elements for the identification of traumatic signatures in bone (entrance wounds, impact sites, and fracture identification). Different wounds and the altered heat-related condition are presented so that the clinician can appreciate the variety of wound types, the thermal changes that occur during the fire, and what is left for the investigators at the fatal fire scene for cranial and postcranial remains of the victim’s body.
Biography
