What You Need to Know About Juvenile Firesetting

Take a look around your house. As a parent, could you say - without reservation - that your home is safe and hazard-free? Check again. Any matchbooks or cigarette lighters on the kitchen counter? How about decorative candles? Do they line the mantel over the fireplace, embellish the coffee table or add a tranquil glow to your evening bath? What about th ose trick birthday candles – the fun kind you can’t blow out no matter how hard you try? Are they stored deep in the pantry along with the cake mix or in a kitchen drawer, in easy reach of a curious, four-foot-tall preschooler?

We hear about the tragedies that befall families who leave loaded guns in plain sight. We take care to install safety gates at the foot of staircases and pool alarms to guard against accidental drowning. Some of us have set parental controls on home computers to keep pedophiles from communicating with our kids. But when thoughts turn to fire prevention many parents think that by installing a smoke alarm in the home, they have done the job of safeguarding their family. Meanwhile, the real danger may lie in the hands of the youngest member of the household who needs only to reach for a nearby cigarette lighter, carry it to his room and – flick, flick, flick – until it ignites, setting his bedding ablaze while the rest of the family sleeps.

The Grim Facts

Juvenile firesetting is a leading cause of arson nationwide, according to a 2001 study by the National Association of State Fire Marshals. Children account for more than 50 percent of those arrested for this crime. In 1997, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that 6.3 percent of those involved in arson activity were under the age of 10. Another 37.5 percent comprised kids under the age of 15. These numbers may be conservative, officials say, because many incidences, in which damage is minimal and no one is harmed, go unreported by families who think it is just child’s play. In 1998, “child-playing” caused more than 67,000 fires across the United States, reports the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Nearly 300 people died in those fires and close to 2,000 were injured.