Chemical Injuries and Destructive Fire: A Bizarre Incident Caused by White Phosphorus

Dan Muller, Identification and Forensic Sciences, Israel police, Jerusalem, Israel

A pebble stone which was picked by a young girl on the beach of Bat-Yam and brought home, started to smoke after rubbing it with a tissue. Her mother who tried to remove the stone was seriously injured when it fell down on her legs and their apartment was burnt to ashes. Traces of materials were collected from the mother’s pants by headspace adsorption using solid phase microextraction (SPME) and were analyzed by GCMS to show the presence of elementary phosphorus. The medical treatment she received and which saved her life was based on the analytical results provided by the arson investigation lab.