By Moriah Balingit and D. Clark Denison
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITCAIRN, Pa. — On June 24, Pitcairn volunteer firefighters arrived at the scene of a trash fire on Broadway to find fellow volunteer James Cole in full gear watching the fire smolder, according to Don Brucker, Allegheny County Deputy Chief Fire Marshal.
Pitcairn police were suspicious and after inquiring, Mr. Cole admitted to setting that fire and a fire earlier that morning and was charged with criminal mischief and arson, according to an affidavit. He has been expelled from the department.
Experts say it’s impossible to identify potential arsonists within the ranks of a fire company. But it’s a problem that’s widespread enough to cause concern in some corners of the firefighting community.
Two years ago, in response to a rash of arsons involving a half-dozen firefighters in Carbon, Monroe and Schuylkill counties, state fire marshal David Klitsch began putting together a course, called the Hero to Zero Firefighter Arsonist Program, to educate fire chiefs about firefighter arson and how to prevent it. It debuted with two pilot presentations last month.
The three-hour program explains the motives that drive firefighter arsonists and provides participants with strategies for identifying firefighters who are or have the potential to become arsonists.
The state currently offers about an hour and a half of instruction on firefighter arson as part of its basic firefighting course at the State Fire Academy in Lewistown, Mifflin County, but not all firefighters in the state take the course, according to State Fire Commissioner Edward Mann.
Trooper Klitsch, of the Pennsylvania State Police Hazelton barracks, met with members of the Carbon County Fire Chiefs Association to formulate a strategy for addressing the problem and developed the course with help from the Pennsylvania Association of Arson Investigators in 2006.
The chiefs, Trooper Klitsch said, wanted information they could pass on to their firefighters that explained how damaging these cases were to the community and the departments.
“Police asked if there was a program or signs to look for -- how to deal with it, how to prevent it,” Trooper Klitsch said. “I looked into it and there really wasn’t a quality program out there.”
The class, taught using PowerPoint slides and videos, also outlines Pennsylvania arson laws, discusses the impact firefighter arson has on communities and offers a profile of a firefighter arsonist.
Trooper Klitsch said that firefighters often set fires out of boredom or a desire for excitement in rural areas where big fires are rare. Other firefighter arsonists have deep-seated psychological issues that lead them to set fires.
Dan Hebert, an New Orleans-based arson investigator with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and a national expert on firefighter arson said that there is also a strong social motivation. Firefighters sometimes crave the camaraderie of the fire hall. Some firefighters set fires together as a sort of bonding experience.
He has even encountered firefighters who razed an abandoned structure to celebrate another firefighter’s birthday.
“When you’re lonely and you only get together for meetings once a week or once a month, you’re looking forward to fighting fires so you can get together with your friends,” he said.
A psychological profile developed by the FBI in 2003 said that firefighter arsonists tend to have dysfunctional families, lack interpersonal skills, are alcoholics and suffer from depression or some form of borderline personality disorder.
But Mr. Hebert said for the most part, they do not have psychological problems that could be detected by fellow firefighters and an “almost insignificant number” are pyromaniacs. Without a distinct psychological or behavior profile, would-be arsonists are difficult to identify, he added.
John McArdle, a Carbon County fire chief who participated in one of the pilot classes, said he thinks preemptively profiling arsonists is tricky, but that the material presented in the course is insightful.
“It’s impossible to profile somebody as a potential arsonist. [This course] is more of a wake-up call,” he said. “It’s always been on my mind, but it became quite evident that we had to take a proactive stand.”
In Pitcairn, fire Chief Chris Fouser said he was not surprised when he heard Mr. Cole was setting fires and agreed that social motivations may have played a role. Chief Fouser said that when Mr. Cole showed up to apply, he was wearing special work pants usually donned by paramedics and an empty utility belt.
“I know he wanted to fit in,” he said.
The best evidence of a firefighter arsonist is not a personality type; it’s the fires they set. Mr. Herbert teaches fire chiefs to look out for a spike in nuisance fires, like trash can fires, or an increase in fire calls during a particular shift.
Trooper Klitsch said firefighter arsonists will often start small and then their behavior escalates.
“Typically these individuals will start with small fires, like garbage cans, and escalate from there. Maybe a shed to a detached garage, then sometimes they’ll even target occupied buildings,” Mr. Klitsch said.
Mr. Klitsch’s program also encourages fire chiefs to perform criminal background checks to prevent convicted arsonists from joining in the first place.
He said that thorough background checks should be standard for all new firefighters, but small, cash-strapped volunteer departments sometimes cannot afford them.
“There are some [departments] that go the extra mile, some that do not. All you need to do is fill out an application,” he said. “It just seems like the volunteer fire service is just happy for anyone to come in and help.”
Under state law, convicted arsonists can be penalized for becoming volunteer firefighters. The law allows departments to require criminal background checks or affidavits that say they have never been convicted of arson.
“The affidavit is only as good as the person who’s swearing to it, but it gives the fire departments the ability to say to the public, ‘We made an effort to deal with this ahead of time,’” said state Fire Commissioner Edward Mann.
In Pitcairn, the department typically relies on informal personal references, like friends or neighbors, and does not do criminal background checks. Chief Fouser will also call the departments that the applicant has worked at before.
But even a bad recommendation did not prevent Mr. Cole from being voted in by the membership in Pitcairn. Chief Fouser said firefighters with Monroeville VFD No. 1 recommended against hiring him and called him a “bad seed,” and Mr. Cole admitted he was thrown out of that company, though he never specified why. Chief Fouser voted against letting him in the department.
But a little more than half of the members wanted to give him a “second chance” and voted him on for a six-month probationary period.
The department has a history of letting in applicants with checkered pasts. They let in two young men who had drug and alcohol convictions to help them turn their lives around, but expelled them when they were caught stealing alcohol from the fire hall, Chief Fouser said.
In the future, Chief Fouser said he hopes to criminal background checks.
Mr. Hebert said the best prevention is educating firefighters about the grave consequences of arson, because many firefighters “don’t see it as that big of a deal,” especially when it came to abandoned structures or unoccupied buildings.
Education has proven to be remarkably effective, he said. In South Carolina, the number of firefighters arrested for arson went from 47 in 1994 to three in 1996 after an education program was instituted in 1995.
Though it seems like an obvious lesson, Mr. Hebert said its often necessary to illustrate to young firefighters the legal and financial consequences of arson and emphasize that they put themselves, other firefighters and bystanders at risk when they start fires.
“It’s generally young men who if they could take it back they would,” he said. “But they never understood the consequences of their actions because no one ever explained to them the consequences.”
Copyright 2008 P.G. Publishing Co.