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Fire debris analysis is a branch of forensic chemistry which deals with the examination and analysis of fire debris samples in order to detect and identify ignitable liquid residues in them. In addition to arson, fire debris analysis is usually performed in cases of fires of suspicious origin [1]. In addition to this, petrol bombs are used in social or religious riots, and terrorist activities. In a developing country like India, “bride burning” for dowry presents another aspect of such crimes and includes cases of homicidal or suicidal burning which require such examination [2]. Fire debris analysis is performed to determine the presence or absence of ignitable liquids in samples, to identify the chemical composition of ignitable liquid, the class of ignitable liquid, and to establish an association between ignitable liquid residues and its source.

This review gives a brief overview of developments in the analysis of petroleum products (PP) in fire debris residues (FDR) by gas chromatography (GC). The review covers different aspects of analysis such as the substrates involved, isolation procedures, column and mobile phase used, and subsequent detection in tabular form. This paper covers detection of PP such as petrol, kerosene, and diesel in various types’ of samples of interest to fire debris analysts. Solid phase microextraction is most frequently used along with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for the extraction and identification of PP from FDR. Chemometric tools should be used to improve the significance and reliability of results obtained from the analysis of FDR. However, the potential utility of portable GC-MS in fire debris analysis cannot be ignored, and its proper development and validation is required before using it for this purpose.