There Are Real Life Fires - and Then There's Hollywood
The quest for realism on TV and movies has lead many screenwriters and producers to re-enact crimes in detail.

Since the crimes themselves are not always that interesting due to poorly written stories in general, some directors use creative license in their methods to spice things up; for instance, there are a lot of exploding cars - especially in bigger budget productions - but real life auto explosions are very rare, not always as dramatic, and very difficult to accomplish 'accidentally'. 

In the vast majority of films and TV dramas, 'arson' fires are typically handled with all the grace of a rhino on barbituates, with very little adherence to reality. The field of fire investigation is apparently one where few scriptwriters dare to venture since so few understand it. And when they do, the result is nearly always a blindfolded stumble into the dark side and a frustrating embarrassment to any viewer with fire investigation experience.

Evidence is typically contrived to fit the plot, buzz words used in fire investigation are indiscriminately and erroneously tossed about with an air of authority, and fire investigation techniques are largely ignored or mis-represented. With this preface, we now turn our attention to the current diva of distortion, the TV crime series 'CSI'.

'CSI' ventures occasionally into the arson field, with consistently incredible results. This show deserves a critical appraisal since it's SUPPOSED to be more reality-based and many people as a result assume the show is an accurate portrayal of 'forensics'. It's not. But it's hot.

The bottom line, though, is that it's still Hollywood, so why do we even expect accuracy at all? Well, how about something merely reasonable, then? Their writers make the big bucks, so a little research might be expected. Right?

Wrong.

When it comes to fire investigation, 'CSI' is about as accurate as vote counting in Florida elections. In the following three stories, nearly every aspect of fire investigation is wrong. Nearly every piece of fire-related dialogue is wrong. The writers clearly need a fire consultant. The sad irony here is that real life fire investigations are far more interesting than anything these writers have made up.

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