Barreiro Maria Beatriz, Morgado Miguel, Ferreira Maria Teresa
Centre for Functional Ecology, Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, Calçada Martim de Freitas, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
LIBPhys-UC, Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
Forensic Sci Res. 2024 Aug 1;10(2):owae043. doi: 10.1093/fsr/owae043. eCollection 2025 Jun.
The World Trade Center attack (2001), the Black Saturday (2009), the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (2014), the wildfires of June and October in Portugal (2017), the California wildfires (2018)-these are a few examples of mass disaster events, specifically related to fire and high temperatures, which resulted in multiple casualties and several people unidentified and/or missing. Besides the physical destruction, the lost lives are one of the main consequences of these contexts. Dealing with the loss of a family member may not be an easy process; however, it is easier to accept when there is a body to bury. Conversely, not knowing the whereabouts of a person who might have been involved in a disaster makes mourning and returning to daily life harder. The family of the missing/unidentified lives in doubt and in a state termed as "ambiguous loss". Forensic anthropologists face several challenges and obstacles when detecting and analyzing burnt skeletal remains, which are increased in mass disaster contexts. However, the suffering experienced by the families of the victims of these contexts is far superior. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to employ all efforts to achieve the identity of these victims to allow the families to mourn, as well as to reassure society that no death is insignificant. Thus, the importance of identifying the victims of scenarios involving fire/heat is addressed in this paper through a brief description of some mass disaster events, emphasizing the challenges faced in identifying burnt remains and the psychological consequences families endure resulting from it.
2001年的世贸中心袭击事件、2009年的黑色星期六、2014年的马来西亚航空17号航班坠毁事件、2017年葡萄牙6月和10月的野火、2018年的加州野火——这些都是大规模灾难事件的一些例子，特别是与火灾和高温相关的事件，这些事件导致了多人伤亡以及数人身份不明和/或失踪。除了物质破坏之外，人员伤亡是这些事件的主要后果之一。处理失去家庭成员的情况可能不是一个容易的过程；然而，当有尸体可埋葬时，接受起来会更容易。相反，不知道可能卷入灾难的人的下落会使哀悼和回归日常生活变得更加困难。失踪/身份不明者的家人生活在疑虑之中，处于一种被称为“模糊损失”的状态。法医人类学家在检测和分析烧焦的骨骼遗骸时面临着几个挑战和障碍，而在大规模灾难情况下这些挑战和障碍会增加。然而，这些事件受害者的家人所遭受的痛苦要大得多。因此，尽一切努力确定这些受害者的身份至关重要，这样可以让家人哀悼，也能让社会放心，任何死亡都不是微不足道的。因此，本文通过简要描述一些大规模灾难事件，强调在确定烧焦遗骸身份时面临的挑战以及家庭因此所承受的心理后果，来探讨确定火灾/高温场景受害者身份的重要性。
