Sea and river vessels as objects of forensic fire engineering investigations in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation

Introduction: the article considers water transport fire safety, causes of fires on sea and river vessels and features of that kind of fires. A detailed description of expert study of fire on the boat is given. Materials and Methods: legislation and regulations on fire safety on ships form the normative framework for the study. Standard methods on fire research served as methodological bases for the study. Results of the study have clarified some clauses relating to criminalistics characteristics of sea and river vessels as objects of forensic fire-technical expertise. They also allowed to provide an interpretation of the content and practical significance of the process concerning forensic examination of vessels. Findings and conclusions: according to statistics the largest number of fires occurs on berthed vessels or during repair in docs. In terms of fire hazard sea and river vessels represent a particular category of objects, thus it’s desirable to invite forensics in order to determine the causes of fire.