Arsonist and Improvised Incendiary Devices
October 16, 2016 8:48 PM   Subscribe

An arsonist torched my vehicle last Friday, and we caught it on security camera video. My question: what type of time-delayed, improvised incendiary device (placed on the EXTERIOR of the vehicle) would burn hot enough to ignite the engine compartment, using no accelerants?

Someone deliberately burned a vehicle of mine (a converted Ford E-350 diesel ambulance) that was parked in my alley last Friday night at 2am. Luckily I was home and heard popping noises, and was able to call the fire department before the fire spread to any homes, and no one was hurt.

Here's a video of the arsonist walking past my parking spot carrying a bag, and then turning around and walking over to ambulance. He leaves without the bag, and then almost 20 minutes later, there is a huge explosion or flare of some kind that dies down a bit, but then eventually starts a fire that consumes the entire cab of the vehicle before the fire department finally arrives.

We have no idea who it is, or why he did it (I have not a single enemy that I know of), and the police are only getting involved tomorrow (after having told me on Friday night that it wasn't arson, because they didn't smell any accelerants).

It is very difficult to make a diesel engine burn.

Can anyone think of what type of device he used?

It seems as if he must have used some sort of timer, because after he leaves, there is no evidence of any smoke or flames until awhile later.

What substance burns like that, hot enough to fall through an engine hood (He didn't lift the hood to place the device).

This is really crazy and terrifying, obviously.

All of your help is appreciated.
posted by piedrasyluz to Technology (30 answers total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Thermite.
posted by Bruce H. at 9:00 PM on October 16, 2016 [15 favorites]


Thermite is also my guess. In fact, this article about DIY thermite includes the sentence "if you lit a pound of thermite on top of your car it would melt through your hood, through your engine, through your driveway, and make a hole in the ground"
posted by pullayup at 9:08 PM on October 16, 2016 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: Is thermite something an experienced arson investigator could test for / recognize the chemical signature of? Because that would seem to be an important piece of evidence, no?
posted by piedrasyluz at 9:15 PM on October 16, 2016


This 1994 report on high temperature accelerant arson makes for rather dismal reading.
posted by zamboni at 9:24 PM on October 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Yep, thermite, easily improvised from iron oxide and aluminum powders, and ignited with burning magnesium. Stick a sparkler's wire handle through the base of a candle, and stick its business end in a bag of thermite. Light candle and be elsewhere.

Thermite burns up to 4500°F and can melt through not just the hood but the engine block itself. An investigator should be able to determine if temperatures that high were present.
posted by nicwolff at 9:34 PM on October 16, 2016 [7 favorites]


I doubt he used a timer, because when he starts back after placing the device, you can see him slip something into his right front pants pocket, which I would guess is a lighter or matches.

The reaction products of thermite are aluminum oxide, which would be liquid at temperatures from ~3700-5400 F, and molten iron; and thermite does not need air to burn because the aluminum oxide takes the oxygen it needs directly from the iron oxide.
posted by jamjam at 10:32 PM on October 16, 2016


Is there a hole in your hood, fender or cowl? Because thermite is going to cut a hole in the vehicle as it burns through and a regular fire (even if helped along by an accelerant) doesn't actually burn through sheet metal. Here's a pretty good demonstration of thermite vs. car and a short look at the aftermath. A Hollywood yet somewhat realistic example.

If there isn't physical damage to the hood/fender/cowl plain diesel fuel is an excellent fire starter. Once it leaks into the engine compartment via the gap at the hood/fender it'll set the rest of the vehicle on fire no problem. And the smell would be the same as that from your truck.
posted by Mitheral at 10:59 PM on October 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


What everyone else says: thermite. I've seen it demonstrated (when I was in the military, it was used as an emergency destruction kit for classified equipment) and what the video shows together with your description seems to match it. I would expect there to be spatters of solidified molten metal in or under the engine compartment, and that will be a strong indicator that this was not a normal fire.

That you seem to have been a completely random victim makes me wonder if this was a trial run for something (insurance fraud?) and you were just unlucky. Mind you, that might motivate the police to investigate more thoroughly.
posted by Major Clanger at 1:18 AM on October 17, 2016


Reiterating what everyone is saying about thermite. Looking at the video it looks a lot like a thermite burn.

Thermite is pretty easy to make out of broadly speaking innocuous materials.
It's used in railway work to do emergency rail welding because it leaves a big blob of molten iron (and a lot of heat!). It's very very easy to tell after the fact that it was thermite, any investigator would recognise it.

The thing that is surprising is the 20 minute delay.
Thermite needs a bit of a kick to get going. A blow torch held on it for 5 or so seconds would do it. A normal match probably wouldn't. Generally you can set it off with a strip of magnesium (which you can light with a normal match) and that burns with a bright white flare, and relatively quickly.
Oh, I suppose you could use a normal firework sparkler, a quick google tells me that the longest available sparkler (36") takes 4 minutes to burn down.
You could maybe use a high tar cigarette as a simple timer, with the magnesium, or sparkler fuse stuck near the bottom of it, so when it burned down it would set the rest off, that might get you up to 10 to 12 minutes?
Short of that I think you'd need something more elaborate.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:58 AM on October 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yes, when I've seen thermite used it's generally been on a short fuse. That's why I'm wondering if this was a test run to see if a timer worked. It's not very hard to make an incendiary that runs off a timer (the IRA used them a lot here in the UK in the 1970s) and of course these days mobile phones provide endless possibilities.
posted by Major Clanger at 4:09 AM on October 17, 2016


I note that my comment was favourited by Candleman...
which reminds me that of course if you want a simple and relatively reliable non electronic fuse for your magnesium igniter than... uh duh. just wrap it round a candle, with a length that you choose.

In fact you can buy magnesium core candles (those trick self relighting birthday cake candles) I wonder if they would work, and if so how long they burn for. Probably not long enough.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:39 AM on October 17, 2016


I agree with the guess about thermite. Any state forensic lab should be able to confirm it. The police are not forensic scientists so they won't be as familiar with the full range of technologies to set things on fire.

I'm really, really sorry that happened to you.
posted by Sublimity at 4:52 AM on October 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best answer: "Any state forensic lab should be able to confirm it. "

Eh....yes and no.....speaking from experience that is not the sort of testing a fire investigator could/would do....they focus on ignitable liquids. A thermite based device would be investigated by the bomb squad and analyzed by a more highly specialized general unknown/explosives section. Even then it would be less "the test for thermite came back positive" and more....we have visual indications of a high temperature localized event with (maybe) trace residue of specific metals found in thermite type mixtures.
posted by Captain_Science at 5:07 AM on October 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am absolutely no expert in this sort of thing, but starting around 1:41 in the video it looks like there are heavy, molten spits coming from your vehicle. Assuming this is what others have said, a look around might find the cooled droplets on the alleyway.

Gotta say, that video is unnerving.

Ps, asavage has experience with Thermite from his show. Not directly from Mythbusters, but includes clips and is definitely connected: Car vs Thermite. The volume used looks potentially similar, the spits too. Good luck.
posted by michswiss at 5:08 AM on October 17, 2016


Pie on face with my YouTube link. Dupe. Still, good luck.
posted by michswiss at 5:16 AM on October 17, 2016


That footage is higher quality than I expected but I still wouldn't trust it to reliably pick up a small amount of smoke from a long fuse at night.
posted by solotoro at 5:55 AM on October 17, 2016


Response by poster: Confirming thermite.

Went out there this morning and found several hunks of it. Several of the hunks were still adhered to the ceramic container he placed the thermite in. Pics here. You can see where the stuff burned the hottest - but it apparently didn't penetrate the hood - my guess is most of it fell into the vents between the windshield and the hood (the three holes in the hood are from the firefighters trying to remove it to douse the flames directly).

The vehicle was an art project - a mobile sound and art platform we were going to take Burning Man next year (see other pics). I run a fledgling 501(c)(3) here in DC to support the arts. This is just completely baffling and the sheer violence of it is astonishing.

Speculation that this was some sort of trial run for some other scheme makes no sense to me - I live in the middle of Washington DC, on a block of very densely packed row houses three blocks from Union Station. If I was going to test out an improvised device, I certainly wouldn't do it in a heavily populated area where I could end up killing people. It makes very little sense to me. (For what it's worth, the vehicle wasn't insured beyond the state minimum, so it's a total loss, including most of the contents - tools, etc.) Why the art car and not any of the gas combustion vehicles parked to the left and right?

The fire investigator apparently doesn't think this is important enough to merit contacting me today - I sent her the video yesterday, and called again this morning, and it's her "day off" apparently, but she didn't hand off the case to anyone else? Why aren't the police here? The ATF? What the ever-living fuck? She claims she sent someone out here yesterday to examine the scene, yet this person didn't even knock on my door. And didn't find the thermite chunks.
posted by piedrasyluz at 6:46 AM on October 17, 2016


Re: the why and wtf, random car arson is A Thing. There are waves of it in places. Our director's Twingo was burnt to a crisp seven years ago, as you can see they also nearly managed to burn down our offices (that parking garage is on the ground floor, there are two storeys of offices above it). Police answer: "oh that's the fourth one in three months, it's kids." And this was with an office building that nearly burnt down. Our director was obviously nonplussed at their reply. They explained that kids going around burning cars tends to happen in localized waves.

Really sorry to hear your art car was a loss, people can be crappy. not at all meant flippantly btw, it's a big loss and a traumatizing experience.
posted by fraula at 7:12 AM on October 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I understand that car fires happen all the time - but oddly there is not a single report of one in the District of Columbia in the past year. Unless they are so common that they aren't even reporting them.

But a car fire where someone uses thermite?

That has got to be a lot less common, no?

And the person in the video doesn't appear to be a kid to me.

I'm resigned to the truth that I will never find out who did this or why, I'm just blown away that the police don't seem to think it's of any significance. I mean, the DC PD posts security cam videos of people stealing packages off front porches - you would think they would be much more concerned about violent crime.
posted by piedrasyluz at 7:37 AM on October 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


I don't have any answers. but I wanted to say that I'm sorry that happened to you.
posted by maurreen at 7:43 AM on October 17, 2016 [6 favorites]


It seems SUPER weird to me that no one is more interested in this...if you don't hear back from the local PD/Fire maybe try contacting FBI/ATF?

I mean yeah car fires are a pretty common thing but the use of thermite is very much not...I've been doing fire debris analysis for almost 10 years and have never herd of another case or even read about one.
posted by Captain_Science at 8:16 AM on October 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Called the ATF earlier, they came right out, within a half hour - collected the debris and are taking it to a lab. They actually supervise DCFD and DCPD. Feeling much better, even though I know it is unlikely they'll find the guy.
posted by piedrasyluz at 8:42 AM on October 17, 2016 [12 favorites]


You might try pitching this to local TV newsrooms. It's an unusual crime, and your high quality video would make good TV.
posted by monotreme at 8:45 AM on October 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Great quality video, btw.

It sucks that your car was targeted, but I can tell you that in my town, a car fire is not a huge deal. Insurance pays out and they stick it in a file and watch for patterns.

Here is a news story about Anthony Baye, a young man who plead guilty to setting 15 fires in one night, one of which killed two people. He also plead guilty to setting 12 other fires over the previous 5 years, many of those car fires. It wasn't until the 15-in-a-night spree that police got serious.

He had no specific target. He just set fires.

Since you say that you don't have any enemies, I wouldn't consider it personal. Is there student housing in your area? If so, I'd guess that this was either a high school senior or a college freshman/sophomore who lives not especially far from the area saw this episode of Mythbusters and decided to try it out on "that old ambulance in the alley in my neighborhood." He bought a couple pounds of powdered aluminum and iron oxide, mixed them up and put in a 20 minute safety flare.
posted by plinth at 8:54 AM on October 17, 2016


Response by poster: For what it's worth, ATF agent said he had never seen anything like this in his career (car fire- related - didn't say anything about other arson events).
posted by piedrasyluz at 9:06 AM on October 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


The remains of the container look like the standard Flower Pot Full of Thermite. At around the 50s mark in your video, you can see the reflection of a flame in a surface just across from the wheelie bin.

I'm sorry that your truck was the nearest vehicle with a flat enough hood for the perp to put the paper shopping bag on. Thermite is stupidly easy to make, or scavenge from railway construction.
posted by scruss at 10:21 AM on October 17, 2016


Apparently mysterious car fires were a thing over in Columbia Heights a couple of years ago.
posted by zamboni at 1:00 PM on October 17, 2016


Response by poster: Forgot to add that we found the largest piece of slag - exactly the shape of a square, 5 inch by 5 inch ceramic container - with a few chunks missing (which were the chunks in the original pics).

Has anyone else looked at the video in slow motion besides me?

Because I have, more times than I care to admit, and I am convinced that the person is wearing shoes that are too big for him, on purpose, to disguise his shoe size. He isn't loping when he first walks past. But when he leaves, picks up speed, and runs, the weird heel-toe motion makes me think he's running / walking funny because he doesn't want his shoes to fall off. Explains the pigeon-toed walk as well. it's why his hip splays out when he first starts to run. His feet look to smushy when he walks.

Try it - go put on a pair of shoes that are 3, 4 or 5 sizes too big. Try to walk in them without heel-toeing.

And then try to run in them.

Whoever this was - he was not just some random arsonist.

I am 100% certain of that.

He deliberately targeted my art car.

I don't know why yet, but I am determined to find out.
posted by piedrasyluz at 2:05 PM on October 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


" it's her "day off" apparently, but she didn't hand off the case to anyone else?"

I imagine standard bureaucracy procedure is it gets assigned to X, and X is in charge of it unless usurped by a higher power- ATF in this case
posted by Jacen at 10:38 PM on October 17, 2016


So I can tell that I am not the only person who read a textfile from some underground BBS decades ago entitled "how to burn straight through the engine block." I knew exactly what it was going to be from your above-the-fold text.

Also, the whole wear-larger-shoes-to-disguise-yourself-from-the-forensics-dudes trick is also one of those things that belongs in the Venn diagram intersection of "textfile 'anarchy' from the BBS days" and "Loompanics catalog hijinks."

No guesses as to why you were targeted, though.
posted by BrunoLatourFanclub at 2:50 PM on October 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


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