Identification of hazardous organic substances for fire investigation with portable GC-MS

Abstract

First responders employ field-portable gas chromatograph - mass spectrometers (GC-MS) to chemically evaluate compounds that may be drugs, explosives, poisonous industrial chemicals or materials, chemical warfare agents, or other dangerous substances. They can measure a wide range of gases, volatile and semi-volatile liquids, and some solids' vapor emissions. Field-portable instrumentation is easily deployable to identify hazardous substances in-situ during an incident response. Using this strategy, real-time targeted risk mitigation and management decisions may be taken to put stronger safety precautions in place and help resolve incidents. The portable GC-MS was able to provide preliminary analytical data on the volatile organic chemicals present in air samples taken from both active and extinguished fires, according to controlled field testing.