Abstract: Compared with exposed corpses in fire scenes, corpses buried under collapsed objects show characteristics of thermal damages due to factors such as occlusion by buried objects and complex fire scene environment, and further research on the characteristics and formation mechanism of thermal damages on such corpses has important value for the theory and practice of fire scene investigation. However, there is a lack of systematic research on the thermal damage characteristics of buried corpses, and the formation mechanism of corpses under the coupling action of multiple factors such as buried medium, fire scene temperature gradient, and burning time is still unclear, resulting in the difficulty of precisely analyzing the thermal damage of such corpses in actual cases. To this end, this article selects typical fire scene burial corpse cases, systematically describes the characteristics of thermal damage traces on human skin, fat, muscle, bone and other parts under the condition of burial, the formation mechanism and its role in reconstructing the scene, and provides scientific basis and theoretical support for the determination of the of death, the identification of the cause of damage and the reconstruction of the fire scene in case solving.

Key words: fire investigation, corpses buried, thermal damages, traces characteristics