A case of death due to outbreak of fire during thinner abuse

A 22-year-old male, who could not escape from a residential fire, was found dead at the scene, although the other three persons who had been in the same room escaped safely. At the medico-legal autopsy, the burned body presented the second degree level of body destruction (T. Nagano. Jpn J Legal Med., 1982) and the pugilistic attitude caused by fire. Soot was observed not only in the trachea but also in the bronchi or even the alveoli. Forensic toxicological analyses were performed using the intratracheal gas, left and right ventricular blood, urine, stomach contents, cerebrum, cerebellum, left and right lungs, liver, spleen, kidney, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. The carboxyhemoglobin concentration was 61.4% in the left ventricular blood and 59.5% in the right ventricular blood. Ethanol and toluene were qualitatively detected in the intratracheal gas by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The ethanol and toluene concentration was 0.48 mg/g and 20.4 microgram/g, respectively, in the blood, and 0.40 mg/g and 28.7 microgram/g, respectively, in the cerebrum. Moreover, the urinary hippuric acid concentration was 1.76 mg/ml. The ethanol concentrations were not at the toxic level, while the toluene concentrations in the blood and cerebrum were almost at the lethal level. However, since the preservation of the capacity for vital reactions was apparent at the autopsy in the form of soot in the air passages and the formation of CO-Hb in the blood, it was surmised that the victim was still alive when the fire broke out, but subject to severe disturbance of the central nervous system function. The cause of death in the present case was diagnosed as death due to fire.