THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO BUILD A FILE OF CHROMATOGRAPHS REPRESENTATIVE OF COMMON FIRES OF SUSPICIOUS ORIGIN AND TO EXPLORE TECHNIQUES FOR THE RAPID IDENTIFICATION OF ACCELERANTS IN FIRE RESIDUES. THREE COMMON COMBUSTIBLE MATERIALS WERE USED: FIR, YELLOW PINE, AND NYLON CARPET WITH PAD. EACH WAS TREATED WITH FIVE DIFFERENT COMMON ACCELERANTS: NUMBER 2 DIESEL FUEL, PAINT THINNER, CHARCOAL LIGHTER FLUID, AND TWO GRADES OF GASOLINE. THE TECHNIQUES USED ARE DESCRIBED IN DETAIL AND THE CHROMATOGRAMS DEVELOPED ARE REPRODUCED. THE MOST EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUE WAS LOW-TEMPERATURE STEAM-DISTILLATION FOR PERIODS OF 3.5 TO 48 HOURS TO LIFT THE MOLECULAR COMPONENTS FROM THE SIMULATED ARSON SAMPLES. THE GAS CHROMATOGRAPH USED WAS FITTED WITH SUPPORT-COATED OPEN-TUBULAR COLUMNS. KOVAT'S INDICES WERE USED FOR SUBSTANCE IDENTIFICATION. LONGER DISTILLATION TIMES WERE NEEDED FOR COMPLETE RECOVERY OF HIGH BOILING-POINT COMPONENTS NEEDED FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF ACCELERANT. TABLES PRESENT EXPERIMENT DATA. REFERENCES AND TABULAR DATA ARE INCLUDED. (GLR)