The Scorched-Earth Obsession

In the early 1990s, Ken Cabe, the now retired fire-prevention coordinator for the commission, partnered with the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Division in Quantico, Va., to examine the phenomenon of firemen arsonists. They developed a screening test to determine which firemen applicants were at high risk of becoming firebugs. "We were arresting 40-some firemen a year, which led us to look at the problem," says Cabe. "It's the kind of thing that everyone knows about but it's embarrassing to discuss, so no one addresses it." Cabe and the FBI campaigned to get fire departments to use the test, and as potential firebugs were screened out, the numbers of firemen arrested for arson plummeted from around 40 to about three a year. "Most of these kids are not bad people, they are not out to hurt people," says Cabe. "But they just are not particularly thoughtful or mature. They are lonely and often depressed and just want to feel more important. When they get caught, the first thing they say to the arresting officer is almost always, 'Does this mean that I can't be a fireman anymore?' "

Arson is the leading cause of fires in the United States and the second leading cause of fire deaths (after fires set by smokers). Still, arson may be on the decline. The statistics compiled by FEMA and the U.S. Fire Administration show a dramatic drop from 78,500 arson structure fires in 1997 to 31,000 last year. California may be an exception to this good news. As of June 2007, there were 473 inmates in the California correctional system serving time for arson, up from 436 in 1998. "It's slowly creeping up," says Terry Thornton, spokeswomen for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Kate Dargan, the California state fire marshal, blames the Santa Anas, in part. "It's hot, windy, dry, you are uncomfortable. People get irritable. There's a reason they call them the devil winds." Usually, she says, arsonists don't set the first fire when the Santa Anas blow, "but often when several fires are going, there is something particularly gratifying about setting the next fire. Attention seekers may not be standing right in front of the camera. But they feel very powerful because they put all this into play."

With Eve Conant, Pat Wingert, Steve Tuttle and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Jennifer Ordonez inLos Angeles, Jamie Reno in San Diego, Jim Moscou in Boulder, Colo., and Matthew Philips and Jeneen Interlandi in New York.

© 2007