~The definition in Webster's New World Dictionary is not complete as you will see in this page. The dictionary says, "the crime of purposely setting fire to another's building or property, or to set one's own so as to collect insurance."~

~Arson is a sick crime. done by sick people and I have seen some pretty sick people. It is rarely committed on the spur of the moment, but always with premeditation and planing. Most of the motives are, to collect insurance of a failing business or replacement of no longer working or damaged property, revenge real or unreal, jealousy, to gain attention or aclaim, and just plain sick people, some of which I will tell you about.~

~Just about anybody could be an arsonist under the right conditions, but those that do set these fires usually are in the below groups:~

~The largest group of the people who set fire to their own houses or property for collecting insurance, or will set fire to anothers property for money so the other can collect insurance is the ARSONIST FOR PROFIT. They feel it is not criminal and is justified "because the insurance company has all the money" and can stand the loss. They are criminals and should be treated as such. We are all paying for their "loss", not just the insurance companies.~

The people who seek revenge or are "getting even" are the ARSONIST FOR SPITE. They feel someone has wronged them, the wrong may be real or imagined, and the best course to their warped mind is to set fire to that persons home or property. It is a serious crime and often times takes lives.~

~The "firebug" and prankster are the ARSONIST FOR KICKS, the first one has a pathological attraction to fire and is at his "high" when he sees the fire he has set and the destruction it causes, he needs psychiatric care not punishment, because his personality will not change by imprisonment. He is very dangerous and may set several fires at a time in the same area. The prankster sets fires just for momentary excitement or retailiation against society in general. He is also a very dangerous person and usually a juvinile trouble maker.~

~Every fire tells a story, a trained fire investigator, can go into the fire scene, find the "point of origin" and then find the cause of the fire. After all accidental means of ignition have been eliminated, only arson remains. He must then find the motive and the person who had the opportunity and means to set the fire.~

~There are a lot of "sick" people out there in society, and I have dealt with a lot of them and their problems. I will tell you about some of the interesting cases I have worked on.~

~After I retired I recieved a call from a Detective I worked on this case with. He said our case was appearing in the January issue of Master Detective magizine. I went out and got a copy and sure enought, it was there on the front cover. This was really a retirement gift, the last case I worked on and solved.~

~The arsonist thinks all clues of his/her crime will be wiped out in the building he set on fire, and can not figure out how the fire investigator can "read" the ashes and catch him.~

`The ashes were read in this case, as they told a story that led to the arrest and convictions of Mrs. B. and her two idiotic friends, Den and Sammy.~

~It was about 1:30 AM that March morning, it was raining and the wind was blowing from the south when the fire call came in. The dispatchers voice over my radio monitor in my home woke me up. The location was only about ten blocks away , so I jumped into my pants and boots, grabed my shirt and coat and ran down the stairs to my Fire Marshal's car I take home with me. I could see the sky was lit up to the southeast.~

~Upon arrival at the fire scene I could smell gasoline in the air, I notified the incomming fire trucks the house was in the "red" and to lay hoses from a fire hydrant on the corner. I got out of the car and put on my firefighting coat and helmet and made my way toward the house, I found window glass fourty seven feet away from the house, this had been an explosion...I notified dispatch to contact the local hospitals to let me know if burn or explosion victims came into the hospitals. I would like to talk with them.~

~The woman next door came over and said she had been awaken by the explosion and braking glass, she went to her son's bedroom to see if he was alright and seen flames comming out of the vacant house next door and called the fire department. She said the house had been vacant for about 10 days, since the occupant, Mrs. B. had been evicted by the buildings owner. Her son said he had got up to go to the bathroom when he heard voices comming from outside the vacant house and later heard the explosion and a car "peeling out" of the alley.~

~Flames were leaping out at the woman's house and her windows were cracked from the intence heat, this was not a common house fire, it was empty and had no furniture for fuel in there. It took the firefighters about 15 mins. to extinguish the fire, Meanwhile, I was looking around outside and found a matchbook from a nearby bowling alley near the kitchen door, footprints in the mud were leading toward the alley, there were fresh tire tracks in the grass and mud, indicating someone left in a car in a hurry.~

~I made my way through the gutted out house and confirmed my original thought, this was not a accidental fire it was fed by gasoline and was arson. There was no question about it; there was a very strong odor of gasoline. I contacted the State Fire Marshal and the Police.~

~I noted burnt newspaper in the kitchen cupboards and a trail of burnt newspaper ashes and surface burn patterns leading from room to room from the kitchen where the fire damage was the greatest, the cracks between the hardwood floors were burnt out, the kitchen cupboards were just about consumed by the flames.~

~The attached garage showed very little fire damage as the door leading from the house to it had been closed, gasoline had been splashed around in it but not ignited. A small cabin about 20 feet to the rear of the house had a very strong odor of gasoline but also had not ignited. Someone really wanted this property destroyed.~

~The fire had burned for about 15 minutes at about 1600 to 1700 degrees F, so it had been ignited immediatly before the phone call to the fire department. A combustible gas indicator was used and a very high reading of 600 parts per milion was obtained. The fire had been caused by spreading gasoline thruout the house and igniting it, creating the explosion of gasoline fumes...The arsonist must be hurt wherever he was.~

~At about 5:00 PM over 16 hours later, I recieved a call from a doctor at the nearby hospital that a 18 year old young man had walked into the emergency room covered with 2nd. and 3rd. degree burns covering 70% of his body. The doctor had wondered why he had waited so long for treatment as he was in extrean pain. His arms, hands and the back of his thighs and legs were blistered, sticky and weeping, which indicated the burns were old.~

~Sammy was 18 years old and new to this country from his foreign land, he could not speak very good english. He was known to the police as having been around the house with Den shortly before the fire. He denied being around the house saying, "No, I was syphoning gasoline from my car for a friend who was out of gas and he was smoking a cigarette and I caught fire." This was too far fetched to believe.~

~I went to the bowling alley where the matchbook came from that night in street cloths and listened to the rumors that were going around from the young people in there. "Sammy and Den got paid to burn a house down from a lady who got evicted and Sammy got roasted when the house blew up." Now I was getting someplace.~

~The morgage company was contacted and it was learned that Mrs. B. had been six months over due on her house payments and left the house reluctantly when she was evicted.~

~Den was contacted and told what he and Sammy done, he readily addmitted it. He said Mrs. B. had asked them to burn the house down to get back at the morgage company, she had given him the key to the front door and $3.00 for gasoline. She agreed to give them each $10.00 down and $10.00 each friday until "they felt" they had enough for the job.(perfect for blackmail!) Mrs. B. was to have picked them up and take them to the house. She did not show up so Den drove his car and parked it on the grass in the back yard so it would not block the alley.~

~They talked between the house what they would do, and entered the front door with the key, put crumpled up newspapers in the cupboards in the kitchen, down the hallway and in the closets, then poured 5 gallons of gasoline thru out the house and out buildings. Den was afraid to light the match, so Sammy said he would. Den went out the backdoor as a "lookout" and there was an explosion and Sammy came out of the house on fire, rolling on the ground. Den panicked, jumped into his car, pealed out on the wet grass leaving Sammy behind. Later Sammy came to his house and they put ointment on his burns and he stayed in the closet. Later Den's mother came into his room and asked what she smelled, he told her it was liniment he had put on his sore feet.~

~Sammy, faced with the facts of the fire as Den told me, gave a statement of his guilt. He confirmed Den's story and added that he was in the laundry room off the kitchen when he lit a match and there was an explosion and he was inside a wall of flames, his cloths caught fire and he ran to the kitchen door and it would not open, he hit it several times and it opened, he came out on fire and rolled on the grass to get the fire out on his cloths. He then walked to Den's house where he found some water in a hole in the back yard to put on his burns. He stayed in a closet until Den's parents left for work,Den put some burn ointment on his burns, but the pain got too great so he went to the hospital, where they scrubed the burn ointment off with a brush.~ (ouch)

~Mrs. B. was arrested and refused to give a statement, she and the two young men were convicted of arson and convicted, she recieved a up to 15 year sentence and restitution to the morgage company, Sammy and Den each got "nine months" in jail. Sammy the "human torch" gained a educational release to attend college to learn English. He had already learned how not to set a fire. Mrs. B,s revenge had backfired. Boy our courts are tough on crime!~

~The fire was in a storrage room of a residence, the damage was only about $75.00. There was no accidental cause to be found in the room, nothing that could have caused the fire, the housekeeper did not smoke. It had to have been set intentional.~

~The only person in the house was the caller, Carolyn, she was the housekeeper who came in each day while the homeowners were at work. She was a pitful sight, it was apparent she had a "problem", it was even more apparent listening to her talk. She had not been in the storrage room she said, "The devil must have started the fire", she said. "He is after me everywhere I go." In talking to her I had learned there had been many fires in places where she had worked and gone to school in both Seattle and Yakima, Washington. I found out from her where she was living and told her, "I will help you catch the devil and stop him from setting fires"~

~A backround check indicated she had recieved mental treatment in the State Hospital for setting fires and turning in false alarms at community colleges she had atended in Yakima and Seattle. Here was a very sick person who needed help before she injured herself or somebody else. On the way to jail she repeated over and over, "The devil made me do it." And this was a long time befor Flip Wilson ever said it on TV.~

~The only fire in the beautiful split-level house was in the woman's bedroom closet. The cloths on hangers and neatly stacked on the closet floor were on fire, the dresser drawers were all open and empty, there was smoke damage thruout the house. Why would all the cloths from the drawers be on the floor where the fire was? Was someone crying out for help by setting this fire or getting revenge aginst the mother?~

~Eva, the homeowner was trying to put on a act of a very high class person, which she was not! She had no idea how the fire started, she said she had not been in the bedroom or closet and did not smoke. She did not even try to come up with the excuse that someone might be trying to get back at her or that her 12 year old daughter might have been playing with matches in there or may have been mad at her and set the fire. It just happened and she did not know how. Fires just do not happen, there has to be a cause.~

~I then interviewed the daughter and learned that she had been in bed sleeping when she woke up hearing her mother and father fighting in the livingroom, it was nothing new she said, they were always fighting, because her mother was always spending too much money on new cloths, drank too much and was always going to a different doctor to get pills for her "nerves". She also said that there were several small fires in the house before when her mother and father had a fight and they would make up and go to bed and not let her go in their bedroom when she was scared from the yelling and the fire.~

~I asked Eva if she thought her husband could have started her cloths on fire because he was mad at her and she became very hostile and said, "my husband and I do not fight, he went to visit a friend before the fire started all by itself, and our home life is none of your business."~

~I told her how she had started the fire and why she had done it, she got very mad and said, "why would I set my own cloths on fire?" I told her it was common for a woman to set fire to their own cloths and in their own closet when they have problems and it was a unconscious cry for help. Her personality made a complete change, she started crying and confessed, that each time her and her husband had a fight over her compulsion to buy pretty and expensive new cloths she had a uncontrollable urge to set little fires that would cause her husband to feel sorry for her and he would not leave her.~

~Eva was arrested, charged, and convicted of First degree arson. She was sent to the State Mental Hospital for the help she needed for her mental and alcohol problems, and was placed on seven years probation.~

~There had been a long period of time between fires, when all of a sudden there was a rash of arson fires, garages, brush, out-buildings, trash dumpsters, vacant bouldings, loading dock fires behind stores, cars and then occupied houses.~

~Jim a 19 year old volunteer firefighter had been praised resently in the newspaper for his rescue of a family in a burning house before the fire department had arrived. He had said he was driving by when he seen the house on fire and ran in and saved them. The fire had been set in the unlocked basement, the door had been found open by the incomming firefighters. (Jim had kicked in the front door for the rescue).~

~Jim's name appeared on each arson fire report as a volunteer fighter on the scene fighting the fires. In talking to the officers and firefighters who responded on the fire trucks, I kept getting the same answer, "yes, Jim was always first on the fire scene in his car with his boots, coat and helmet on". He was very active, even on fires occuring all the way across town. He was very active indeed!.~

~After supper the next night, I took my portable radio and binoculars out to my wife's car and drove over and parked where I could watch Jim's car and house. I didn't have to wait long, I seen him come out of the house and go into the garage, he came out with a one gallon gasoline can, he put it in the trunk of his car, got in and drove away in the direction of the business area. I kept several blocks behind him untill he turned down the alley behind the furniture store. I parked on the street and walked into the alley where I seen him lighting a match and flip it at cardboard boxes and there was a bright flash and several boxes blew aside from the gasoline vapors igniting. I called out, "hold it Jim" and radioed dispatch of the fires location. Jim did not try to run away, he just stood there looking at the fire with his head down like a child who had been caught wetting the bed, and Jim's pants WERE wet.~

~He was arrested and his car impounded, rights read and confession taken, he did not try to lie and say he just discovered the fire and was going to report it.~

~Jim said he got great excitement out of lighting fires, he often obtained a sexual climax or urinated in his pants when he lit the fires, turned in the alarm or fought the fires he set. He did not intend to hurt anybody and could not stop what he was doing. He said he knew I would catch him and he wanted to get caught so he could get some help. He could not talk to his mother about it because she would burn his fingers again, and his father was always drunk and would beat him. Jim did get the help he needed, he was one very sick boy.~

~A asonist with one match can turn a peaceful night into the hell of smoke, flame. death, destruction, and horror. We may never know how many fires have been set by arsonists for what ever their reasons may be. The law says all fires are accidental untill proven otherwise and it is the fire investigator's job to "read" the ashes and put these sick people away where they will not hurt us or destroy our property.~

~Mrs. B. sought revenge for an imagined wrong done her.~
~Sammy and Den sought finantial gain.~
~Carolyn had the "devil" telling her to set fires.~
~Eva sought attention and "help" for her problems.~
~Jim got excitement and sexual gratification.~

~They all were fire setters, male, female, child and adult, they had their reasons for setting fires, Thank God no lives were lost because of their resons. You can read about others in the newspapes and on TV everyday. Very often they do take lives, even though they don't plan on it.~

~Remember when you were young and you thought you would create some excitment by pulling the fire alarm box in the school hall or the one on the pole down on the street corner? Or you were mad at someone, or thought it would be fun to call the fire department and report a fire at their home or business?~

~ You stood back and listened to the screaming sirens getting nearer and nearer, then you could see the fire trucks or aid car, police or amblance racing down the street thinking they were needed to save lives or buildings, only to arrive and find out it was ONLY another false alarm.~

~You did not take time to think of the concequences of your thoughtless action. Granted, it was fun but it could have cost a life or property damage and injuries that you would pay for when you were caught (now when you call, the name, phone number and address of the caller appears on the computer of dispatcher) and live with the rest of your life, the firefighters or others may have died as a direct result of your foolish action.~

~Emergency equipment, such as fire trucks, aid cars, amblances and police cars have red/blue lights and sirens to warn people they are responding to an emergency and those people are required to yeild to them. But most drivers do not hear the sirens with the radio, cassette or CD playing, or they try to get across the intersection befor the emergency vehicle gets there or after it has passed by they pull out without looking at the others coming close behind it. Just like a passing train, there may be another one coming the opposite direction, it happens all the time. Remember emergency equipment must respond fast, a life may depend on it. Firefighters, if the fire was burning when you got the call, it will still be burning when you get there, if you get there, THINK it could be your life, slow for intersections.~

~In 1971 we were so busy answering false alarm calls I wrote a artical for a Seattle newspaper, it was printed in the International Fighter, a magizine for firefighters in the United States and Canada, and was used on national television as a editorial. It is as follows:

~It was Wednesday, March 17, 1971, 10:26 PM The Place: The Seattle Fire Department dispatch center. The emergency phone rang. a tape recorder started and the phone was answered, "Fire Department."~

~A voice, that of about a 14 year old boy said, "I'm calling in a fire at 10601 19th. Avenue Southwest, the house is on fire now."

~The dispatcher asked, "what is your phone number"? The bay gave the number. "What is burning"?, the boy answered, "the house is." "Next door to you or what"? The boy answered, "It's about a block away from here, I don't think anybody is home." The dispatcher answered. "ok we will notify the proper people." While a second dispatcher called the phone number given.~

~Two engine companies and a truck company as well as a rescue truck and Fire Marshal responded to the call of "HouseFire". There were 11 firefighters on the equipment. When they arrived at the address they were told by the occupants that there was no fire and they had not called. This was another FALSE ALARM.~

~To the children watching from nearby it was exciting; to the caller it was very funny. What IF was a real emergency far across the area? What IF there had been a car in the way, that had not heard the sirens? What IF a car had run into fire equipment? What IF.......?~

~Five pieces of emergency equipment and 11 men were wasted for a total of 132 man-minutes or 2.12 man-hours because of this call. The Seattle Fire Department dispatcher said this same voice had called in several false alarms in the past.~

~The penalty for turning in a false alarm was $250.00 back then, had someone lost a life as it's result the charge would have been manslaughter. YOU the parent will have to pay for it. WE the firefighters and public may die for it.~

~On night a male voice called in a fire by saying, "I want to report a house fire", when the dispatcher asked, "How do we get there"?, the voice replied, "You still have those shiny red fire trucks don't you"? He was laughing as he hung up the phone. Now that was funny, we all got a laugh out of it listning to the tape recording, but others were not so funny.~

~The fire phone rang at the dispatch center at about 8:80 AM that rainy morning in Seattle. The caller, a male excited voice said, "Hurry up, the whole house is on fire and the people are in the window upstairs yelling for help." He gave the address in south suburban Seattle and the fire trucks were on the way.~

~As the 17 ton firetruck neared the intersection with it's red lights, siren and airhorn on, the small car appeared entering the intersection from the opposite direction. The driver of the fire truck hit the brakes, the huge truck, loaded down with 1000 gallons of water and firefighting equipment began "fishtailing" on the wet pavement. It would not and could not stop in time.~

~The fire truck struck the car, the two firefighters riding on the "tailboard" flew off into the street and were injured, not as bad as they could have been, because they were covered with their protective fire fighting clothing and helmets and there was not another fire truck or "fire chasing" sightseers cars behind to run over them. But things were different in the car struck by the fire truck.~

~The car was a mess, but it's occupants were worse. The female passenger was deceased, she had been decapitated passing through the windshield and then back inside and out through the door as it opened and onto the pavement(no seatbelt on), The driver lived but was critically injured. This danger exisists every time a emergency vehicle responds to a call for help, and when you have your radio turned up so loud you can not hear the sirens. But this call was needless and innocent people were killed and injured. You or I could be the next victims. Fire kills in more ways than one. The fire truck never did get to the fire, worse yet, there was no fire. This had been another false alarm.~

~Over a period of two weeks , the fire department responded to nine false alarms in the same area, all of the calls came in over the phone at just about the same time of day, just after the high schools let out for the day.~

~When I played the phone tape recorder over and over , I detected the same use of words discribing the "fires" and locations, then I discovered the same phone number was given two times on different calls. I checked with the telephone company and learned that the location of the phone was at a gas station just two blocks down the street from the fire station, in a direct route the fire trucks had to take to reach all of the false alarms. It was a telephone booth.~

~I went down to the gas station and learned that a young boy about 15 years old had asked for change to use the telephone several times and drove off in a old car after the first fire truck drove by, following it, The attendent thought the boy was too young to be driving a car.~

~It only took two days of "Staking out" the phone-booth. I radioed dispatch of my observation and was told a caller reported a fire in the business area from that phone-booth. The boy came out of the phone-booth and got into a old car, as the fire truck drove by he drove out of the gas station after the fire truck, running through two red traffic lights. I was right on his tail, he would not pull over to the side of the street for my red emergency lights or siren untill the fire truck pulled up in front of the reported address. He parked about a half a block behind them blocking a alleyway as I pulled in front of his car and a police car behind him.~

~Jimmy turned out to be 16 years old, driving with a learners permit that required a licensed adult driver to be with him while learning to drive. He started crying like a baby as we walked up to his car, a 16 year old "sick" baby.~

~Jimmy said he got great excitment out of turning in false alarms and even sexual gratification from watching the fire trucks that he followed, "like a real fireman". He said he did not have any friends and the others at school made fun of him and played jokes on him, that they "made" him cry and he got mad and was always in trouble so his devorced mother brought him his car when he turned 16, if he promised not to get in anymore trouble. I talked to him for some time and cleared up many of his crimes, many involving other agencies. He was turned over to Juvenile authorities to get some much needed help.~

~The dangers of false alarms should be obvious. Unfortunately, false alarms have increased much more rapidly then actual fires in resent years. Most often they are turned in by children, some of whom want to watch the fire trucks speeding down the street with sirens sounding and red lights flashing.~

~The young children do not stop to think of the dangers. The driver of a fire truck does not know he is responding to a false alarm and must assume there is a real fire and the people's lives and property are in danger.~

~Have you as parents taken the time to sit down with your children and talk about the danger of false alarms? The life you save may be someone you and they know and love. Like the child that plays with matches, it is not "just the bad child" that turns in false alarms. The life you save may be your own!~