1. Every fire report form should answer the following questions on the defect, act or omission giving rise to ignition.

a) was the fire accidental, malicious deliberate or doubtful? If, and only if a "most likely cause cannot be identified, "Not known" should be recorded. However, if as a result of further investigation a "most likely cause" is identified it should be notified to the Fire Statistics Section in the usual way via an FDR2 form.

b) who or what was responsible for the fire? If it was a person, distinguish between a child, a youth or an adult in accordance with current practice (or guidance to be issued).

c) details of the defect, act or omission, for example what did the person do/ what was the defect in the equipment?

example
For fires caused by children "with fire", it is important to say if it was an accident or not and what the children were thought to have done. We currently assume "children playing with fire" to be an accident unless specifically told otherwise. It is correct to say "Accident caused by children playing with matches" or "Malicious due to child with match, etc." but it is incorrect to say "Child with match" because it does not say if it was by accident or not.