An NFPA-921 is a guide issued by the National Fire Protection Association. The National Fire Protection Association issues guides and standards that are followed in the fire and electrical and other hazardous areas. And NFPA-921 particularly deals with fire cause in origin investigations. NFPA-921 is very important for insurance companies to know about because it sets really the standard even though it’s called a guide, it sets the standard for what fire cause and origin investigators need to do when they’re investigating a loss.

Again, while it’s called a guide courts are really using it as a standard and have excluded experts in various cases because they have not specifically followed NFPA-921. Under NFPA-921 the expert, the cause and origin expert is supposed to use the scientific method in investigating both the origin and cause of a fire. That means they have to test their hypotheses, it’s not enough just to go out, go through and say we’ve ruled out every other cause, potential cause for this fire and therefore, the fire has to be X. They actually have to go through and test their hypotheses. And so, it’s important that the insurance company know that so that they hire qualified experts so that they don’t have their case and their expert excluded at the time of trial. After all the work they’ve put in that’s the last thing they want to have happen.