Grissom and his crack team later observe that the bedroom wiring's circuit breaker had tripped in the electrical panel - conclusive evidence to them that the circuit had 'overloaded'. In real life, finding tripped breakers is not unusual, and doesn't necessarily indicate that an electrical fire has even occurred; this also happens when electrical components are merely exposed to a fire. They later also find melted glass fragments on the closet floor. What could possibly explain all these new clues which had supposedly been previously overlooked by the CSI guy originally assigned to the case? BTW, the original investigator determined that the guy was guilty, so the scriptwriters made this co-worker of Grissom a major jerk. In a startling admission from the accused (with a flashback), Grissom discovers that, on the night of the fire, the man had argued with his wife in their bedroom over a new woman in his life (Grissom!! Hello?!). The son was nowhere to be seen in this scene, but for plot convenience he reportedly hadn't been able to sleep and was supposedly in the couple's bed trying to get some shuteye during their shouting bout! In her anger, his wife began flinging handy and available projectiles at her philandering hubby. One of the objects thrown was a hefty glass kerosene lamp which missed him but shattered against a closet wall and spilled its flammable contents. This is also an important detail the accused has neglected to tell Grissom about until late in the episode. And it also explains why we're told initially only that the lab found 'hydrocarbons', since gasoline is readily distinguishable from kerosene lamp oil - though both are hydrocarbon fuels. The accused says he left home and drove off after the argument, but after mulling it over it a bit he decided to turn around and attempt to salvage his 10 year marriage. He returned less than 20 minutes later to find the house on fire. A lot happened in those 20 minutes - according to Grissom's unique perspective. Immediately after the man left the house the heater had coincidentally overloaded the circuit, sparked out the outlet in the closet where it was plugged in, and ignited the kerosene fumes in the closet. For some inexplicable reason the wife and son had done nothing to clean up the spilled kerosene before the fire; they made no attempt to escape the bedroom once the fire began and they presumably died of poisoning by carbon monoxide (a fire byproduct), which takes time to accumulate. What were they doing while the fire was building in their room? Were they asleep? If so, how did they fall asleep so quickly? (remember that the 8 year old was in their room because he couldn't sleep!) Were they conscious through all this? (pssst, Grissom.... these are clues!) |
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