facts about arson.

[fireball]

from firefighter hourly.com:



"July 12, 2008
Facts About Arson
Arson Is Responsible For About 25 Percent Of All Fires.
Arson Is A Very Violent Crime That Claims Over 700 Lives Each Year.
Arson Is The Second Leading Cause Of Residential Fire Deaths.
Arson Is The Leading Cause Of Dollar Loss From Fire, Exceeding $2 Billion Annually.
Arson Is Responsible For 20% Of All Property Related Fire Losses.
The Average Property Loss From Incendiary And Suspicious Fires Is Nearly $30, 000.
Last Year, More Than 41,000 Vehicles Were Destroyed By Arson, Resulting In $137 Million In Property Damage.
Arson Is A Very Difficult Crime To Solve, Only 15 Percent Of Arson Cases Are Closed By Arrest. Only 2 Percent Are Closed By Conviction.
Juveniles Now Account For 55 Percent Of Arson Related Arrests "

some numbers are just unbelievable!

[txarson]

Great info Fire, and Yes, the numbers are alarming.

[fireball]

for the number concerning juveniles who set arsons,does it depend on state?

[txarson]

The sad part is many departments do not believe they have an "Arson" problem, and the numbers I believe are much higher.

[jester1965]

Just last year some members of my department attended several trainings to develope a juvenile fire setter team. There have been a few aborted attempts to get a state wide network established. We have had a few youngsters in the program, with (so far) good success. When I say a few, that is alarming due to the relatively small population of our town.
We also have had a couple of arson fires of which all were targeted at one group (H.O.M.E. Co-op). Both fires in town were set in occupied buildings which served as housing for the homeless involved with this group. The last fire so far against this group was set with at least 10 people asleep before dawn. All got out but the building was a loss, and it was about a mile in the woods over a rough dirt road.
There was also someone setting fire to barns throughout central Maine last year.
It's out there everywhere.

[Lucky 13]

I'm not aware of the stats, but our department's lead investigator (also our department training officer) has stated that there is a definite arson problem in Sumter City/County.

[fireball]

Originally Posted by txarson

The sad part is many departments do not believe they have an "Arson" problem, and the numbers I believe are much higher.

when you wrote higher,you meant like which numbers?

[txarson]

The total numbers I believe are higher. As with Tommy and Jester, their departments recognize the problems. Juvenile fire setter programs work, if they are done right, and it take a coordinated effort between several departments from fire, law enforcement and the court systems and even the schools to make it work.