It can be found in just about any occupancy used for construction, furniture, paneling, and many forms of ornamentation, and decoration. Wood also is of use to a fire investigator. One of the products of wood combustion is char. This paper attempts to investigate the origin of wood char and understand its significance to the fire investigator. To understand the origin of char, it is first necessary to understand the parent material of the char, or the original wood.
Wood is an inhomogenous, nonisotropic material composed of high molecular weight natural polymers.
Its principle constituents are cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. It also contains varying amounts of water, salts, and resins. Cellulose Cellulose is the principle constituent of wood. It is a condensation polymer of the hexose sugar, D-glucose and has a linear structure. This linear structure is what gives the wood's cells their strength and rigidity.