To demonstrate the lab's capabilities, ATF investigators torched a mock-up of a living room, doused the flames and walked a chemical-sniffing dog through the charred remains to determine the source of the blaze.
The new facility _ part of a $130 million ATF crime lab outside Washington _ will help law enforcement agencies nationwide learn more about fires and how to investigate them.
Lab chief Rick Tontarski said researchers will reconstruct fire scenes, test the burn characteristics of materials and train arson investigators.
``This is a one-of-kind resource for fire investigators,'' he said.
Inside the hangar-sized ``burn room,'' investigators can build a structure up to two stories high, and then, set it ablaze and study what happens to it as it's consumed by flame. For instance, investigators may examine how smoke moves from room to room to determine why someone died in one area but a person in the next room was unharmed.
Above the burn room looms a massive, soot-blackened exhaust hood which is 60 feet wide.
ATF research engineer David Sheppard said it sucks up smoke, passing through it through ducts bristled with instruments that can take more than 1,900 simultaneous measurements. Scientists can track the intensity of the blaze and the release of toxic gasses, along with a host of other data, he said.
For more modest studies, an adjacent room is host to a smaller burn area, where semi-charred walls are scrawled with graffiti like ``burn baby burn'' and ``burn to learn.'' Forensic examinations are done elsewhere in the lab, including tests on how mundane items like plywood and other building materials burn. Findings are shared with arson investigation units throughout the country.
The ATF takes part in about 1,500 fire investigations a year, and up to 40 percent of those become full arson investigations, said Tontarski.
The new lab also boasts environmentally friendly measures to keep the toxic discharges from test blazes minimal, Tontarski said. Smoke is filtered and toxins removed before being released into the air. Water used to douse fires is treated in holding tanks and recycled.
The facility has been taking criminal cases since September and training investigators since August.
