Interview Content: Fire Incident Investigation — Key interview points for witnesses, reporters, and responsible persons to identify fire causes and ensure safety.
Initial Discoverer
- Confirm the address, name, date of birth, occupation, and phone number.
- Confirm the time of discovery (e.g., exact time based on TV program, radio, clock, or mobile phone).
- Confirm the location of discovery (inside/outside the building, direction, distance, height difference).
- What were they doing when they discovered the fire?
- How did they notice the fire? (flames, smoke, heat, sound, smell, voices, animal noises).
- Describe the burning situation at that time (location, range, flame height, smoke color, burning materials).
- Actions taken after discovering the fire (extinguishing, evacuation, reporting, removing items, rescuing, guiding).
- Were there any people nearby? (gender, estimated age, clothing, number of people).
Reporter
- Confirm the address, name, date of birth, occupation, and phone number.
- Confirm the time of discovery (e.g., exact time based on TV program, radio, clock, or mobile phone).
- Confirm the location of discovery (inside/outside the building, direction, distance, height difference).
- What were they doing when they discovered the fire?
- How did they notice the fire? (flames, smoke, heat, sound, smell, voices, animal noises).
- Describe the burning situation at that time (location, range, flame height, smoke color, burning materials).
- Confirm the process leading to the report (route from discovery to reporting location, required time).
- Method of reporting (type of report, person reported to).
- Actions taken afterward (extinguishing, evacuation, reporting, removing items, rescuing, guiding).
- Were there any people nearby? (gender, estimated age, clothing, number of people).
Questions Related to Smoking
- Whether they smoke or not.
- Time when they last smoked (e.g., exact time based on TV program, radio, clock, or mobile phone).
- Frequency and quantity of smoking per day (to understand smoking habits).
- Brand of cigarettes.
- Location of ashtrays.
- Details about ashtrays (material, shape, color, etc.).
- How they dispose of cigarette butts in ashtrays.
- Last time they disposed of cigarette butts (e.g., exact time based on TV program, radio, clock, or mobile phone).
- Number of cigarette butts in the ashtray at the last disposal.
- Usage status of matches/lighters.
Initial Fire Extinguisher
- Confirm the address, name, date of birth, occupation, and phone number.
- Confirm the time of discovery (e.g., exact time based on TV program, radio, clock, or mobile phone).
- Confirm the location of discovery (inside/outside the building, direction, distance, height difference).
- What were they doing when they discovered the fire?
- How did they notice the fire? (flames, smoke, heat, sound, smell, voices, animal noises).
- Describe the burning situation at that time (location, range, flame height, smoke color, burning materials).
- Confirm the process leading to extinguishing the fire (route from discovery to extinguishing location, required time).
- Method of extinguishing the fire (number of people, method, frequency, effectiveness).
- Burning situation after initial extinguishing (location, range, flame height, smoke color, burning materials).
- Actions taken afterward (extinguishing, evacuation, reporting, removing items, rescuing, guiding).
- Were there any people nearby? (gender, estimated age, clothing, number of people).
Person Responsible for Ignition
- Confirm the address, name, date of birth, occupation, and phone number.
- Information about the ignition source and materials ignited (compare with normal situations).
- Structure, equipment, type, model, shape, capacity, material, location.
- Usage and handling situation, history, purpose, time, frequency, method.
- Maintenance, inspection, adjustment, cleaning status (time, frequency, method, inspection company name, abnormalities).
- Breakdown, repair, damage, structural incompleteness, corrosion status.
- Purchase date, place of purchase, manufacturer, elapsed years.
- Distance from nearby combustible materials.
- Scattering distance and range of ignition source.
- Presence of animals, change of handlers, etc.
- Actions at the time of and after ignition (compare with normal situations).
- Confirm actions just before ignition (when, where, with whom, what they were doing, purpose).
- Actions at the time of ignition (when, where, with whom, what they were doing, purpose).
- Actions after ignition (when, where, with whom, what they were doing, purpose).
- Confirm work hours, leaving work, and going out times (time they left the site).
- Presence of people nearby (gender, estimated age, clothing, number of people).
Fire Source Responsible Person
- Confirm the address, name, date of birth, occupation, and phone number.
- Situation before the fire.
- Structure of the building, number of floors, total floor area, equipment, arrangement of goods.
- Position and management status of fire sources (check with drawings, etc.).
- Living situation (status of family members, cohabitants, and their work hours, leaving work, and going out times).
- Management situation (status of employees, their work hours, and work system).
- Work and handling situation (content; check specific work content with employees, etc.).
- Patrolling and inspection situation (time, frequency, method, inspection company name, abnormalities).
- Condition and repair status of machinery, equipment (including past).
- Confirm safety devices of machinery, equipment.
- Fire source handlers and usage time, etc.
- Position and locking status of building entrances and openings (check with drawings, etc.).
- Condition of firefighting equipment (check inspection records).
- Purchase date of the building, presence of extension or renovation (acceptable at the time of damage report).
- Status of fire insurance, etc. (company name, timing, amount).
- Presence of similar past incidents.
- Situation at the time of fire (if not applicable as initial discoverer, initial extinguisher, or reporter):
- What they were doing at the time of the fire.
- Confirm the time when they became aware of the fire (e.g., exact time based on TV program, radio, clock, or mobile phone).
- Confirm the location where they became aware of the fire (inside/outside the building, direction, distance, height difference).
- How they became aware of the fire (flames, smoke, heat, sound, smell, voices, animal noises).
- Actions taken afterward (extinguishing, evacuation, reporting, removing items, rescuing, guiding).
References National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)