By the nineties, Hurst had begun devoting significant time to criminal-arson cases, and, as he was exposed to the methods of local and state fire investigators, he was shocked by what he saw.
The cause of the blaze, which broke out around 2 a.m. at Psychiatric Hospital No. 14 in Ramensky, about 80 miles north of Moscow, had not been determined and authorities were looking at the possibility of an electrical malfunction or arson and had opened a criminal investigation, Russia's Investigative Committee said.