Collaborative fire research program using donated human remains

Beginning in 2020, Western Carolina University (WCU)'s Forensic Anthropology Program began a research partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Fire Programs and Training Branch on burned human remains via a continuing education (CE) course. This course has evolved since its original inception to include a controlled burn utilizing donated human remains. The content of the CE course is primarily geared toward law enforcement, fire investigators, medicolegal investigators, and crime scene technicians. The 2021 course was the first to utilize a donor from WCU's Body Donation Program, a willed-body program where donors or their next-of-kin can provide additional consent for skeletal modification and/or genetics studies. In addition to the educational purposes of running a controlled burn within a flashover cell, small research projects are also being conducted. Bullets were inserted into the 2021 donor to test various detection methods for utility within fire investigations. For the 2022 course, WCU's Forensic Science Program joined this partnership; they inserted seminal fluid into bodily cavities to examine the recovery of genetic material from a secondary contributor after a high-intensity, low-duration fire. The preservation of sharp force trauma in soft tissues was also examined during this course. Genetic material recovery was retested in the 2023 course, as well as examinations of cranial blunt force trauma and blood preservation within a scene. These courses are generating a sample of thermally altered human remains for future research and education, in addition to providing insights useful for fire investigators. This article is categorized under: Forensic Anthropology > Trauma Analysis Forensic Anthropology > Taphonomic Changes and the Environment