12 • TheCONNECTION • October/November 2018

Wylie Fire Marshal Pioneers Groundbreaking Forensics Class

Steve Seddig, Wylie Fire Rescue’s fire marshal and president of the Collin County Fire and Arson Investigators Association, has made great strides

in the field of forensic fire investigation. His fire death course, which utilizes human cadavers, is only the second annual course of its type in the country.

Seddig was motivated to present this program locally after participating in a similar course in California in 2014. He was intrigued by the idea of giving fire investigators more tools with which to determine the origin and likely cause of a fire that resulted in loss of life.

His interest had sharpened following the release of a report on Ernest Willis and Cameron Todd Willingham, both of whom were sentenced to death based on almost identical assumptions, find-ings, and conclusions by arson investiga-tors. Both men were convicted of arson that resulted in fatalities. In 2004, following further investigation by a nationally recognized arson expert,

both men were found not guilty. Willis was released, but Willingham had already been put to death by lethal injection.

“Elements of that report made the hair on the back of my neck stand up,” Seddig said. “It made me want to change things if I was capable.”

Seddig and the CCFIA, Inc. partnered with the Sam

Houston State University Applied Anatomical Research Center at the

Center for Biological Field Studies to bring the course to Texas in 2015, and it has been held annually, moving this year to its own long-term site on the campus.

How it WorksAfter several days of classroom instruc-

tion, including basic fire science, chem-istry basics, and forensic anthropology,

three 12-foot-by-12-foot rooms and three outdoor crime scenes are set up with some crime scenes including

By Judy Truesdell

Steve Seddig, Wylie Fire Marshal

Photo by CraigKelly, City of Wylie Information Officer.

www.wyliechamber.org • 13

human cadavers. (The training utilizes only those cadav-ers that next of kin have authorized for use in trauma studies.)

Thermocouple trees (devices that measure tempera-ture) in the rooms at different heights capture heat data during the fires. Furnishings, including a king-size bed, end tables and newspapers, are placed inside the burn chambers, with the doorways and windows in identical places. Thermocouples are also placed on the cadavers in various positions to relay information to a data logger, including heat and exposure time data for the cadavers and the vicinity around the scene. The one variable is the origin of the fire.

Another unique and important feature of the class is its research element. Class members witness a live fire involving a cadaver, viewing firsthand how the body is affected. The room, open on one side with a furni-ture layout similar to a typical hotel room, is set on fire, and class members witness firsthand how the body is affected by extreme heat.

“Everybody gets to see the effects of this radiant heat coming out of the burn cell, which results in a better understanding of how the body reacts to that kind of thermal insult,” Seddig said.

An autopsy follows the demo, giving participants the opportunity to see through the medical examiner’s eyes what they were looking for and how to go about collecting information from a body that has been exposed to fire.

Student Success RateIn another research portion of the course, students

form teams of 10 and have 30 minutes to inspect the mocked-up rooms prior to the burn. They take mea-surements, note the condition of the paint on walls and furnishings and other observations. Students return to the classroom, crime scenes are created, and the fire is set and allowed to burn for 4.5 minutes post-flashover (when the fire reaches the point that the contents of the room ignite suddenly and all at once). The next day, teams begin their post-fire crime-scene investigation.

The final day of the course, teams present their find-ings to the other class members. In addition to discov-ering the method of death, they are also challenged to locate the origin of the blaze, utilizing a technique called “gridding the room,” a method of investigation not cur-rently in widespread use. In this technique, instruments are used to measure the depth of dehydration in the drywall. “It definitively identified the area of origin in all cases,” Seddig said.

Seddig was pleased and a bit surprised that first year to see that everyone who worked the burn chambers all “got it right.”

“They nailed it, using the gridding method. I was bet-ting somebody would be wrong – but they were all right. Thirty men and women!” he said. In the years that have

followed, only one team was unsuccessful in discovering the fire’s origin utilizing this tool.

In addition to adding research data, Seddig said this training is increasing fire marshals’ comfort level when dealing with a fatality crime scene. “Now we are con-fident that part of our job is to process the scene as completely as possible, including the body. Before, we

Evaluating the effects of fire on the scene in which the fire began in a trash can are, from back left corner, Bobby Kores, El Centro College PD; James Bagwell, Montgom-ery County CID; Rusty Bryant, Temple Fire Rescue; Schaef Riley (with camera), Unified Investigations and Science Inc.; Ed Chever, Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office; Dr. Joan Bytheway, director of Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Facility at SHSU; and Brad Alley, Harker Heights Fire Department.

Wylie Fire Marshal Steve Seddig discusses the aftermath of a controlled burn with Dr. Gregory Gorbett, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University.

Data from the burn pods is collected digitally for future research and investigation.

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relied on the medical examiner, rather than our own judgment, to tell us how a person died. Now, we’ll pro-cess the scene, rule out weapons and obvious injuries; we’ve studied the effects of fire on the human body and can recognize telltale signs that we were not aware of before.”

Over 250 fire marshals, investigators, and attor-neys from agencies representing Arkansas, Nevada, Oklahoma, McAllen, Colorado, Guadalupe County, Wichita County, Seguin, and Waco, as well as Texas Rangers, the Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office, and the federal Bureau of Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have attended the course since its inception.

Victims’ VoiceStudents evaluate the program after its conclusion, and

their comments have been extremely positive. After the 2017 course, Bexar County Deputy Fire Marshal Marcel Garcia said he used the training immediately. “Less than a month later, I responded to a house fire involving two fatalities,” he wrote. “The structure had been completely engulfed and eventually collapsed.”

He said that during the excavation process after the fire, utilizing the new skills he had acquired after the live-burn portion of the training, he located fragments of skull bone and other tissue; these led to confirmation of the tragic news that a young child and grandmother had been in the house, a fact that had been suspected but not verified. “Without this training, there is a possibility that the fragments of skull bone and partial body parts located at my fire scene, would have gone undetected.

“This is unnerving to consider, as I am the voice of our victim and am responsible for determining origin and cause.”

Garcia added that he now has stronger confidence in his ability to investigate a fire scene where a fatality has occurred without questioning his knowledge and skills.

“This increase in confidence has also allowed me to feel comfortable to share this valuable knowledge with my fire marshal, chief, and co-workers. Bless you for offering this course!”

Innovative Leadership“This is an example of the value and excellence Steve

Seddig brings to Wylie Fire Rescue,” said Fire Chief Brent Parker. “The data gathered by this course of study will not only aid law enforcement in bringing arsonists to jus-tice and avoid wrongful convictions, it will also no doubt save lives.”

Seddig has been with WFR since 1994 and has been the fire marshal since 2003. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Emergency Administration from the University of North Texas, Associate of Applied Science – Fire Science from Collin College, and Associate of Applied Science – Law Enforcement Technology from Rio Salado College in Tempe, Ariz. •