The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) is making May 5-11 Arson Awareness Week.
“Arson is a devastating crime,” said US Fire Administrator Ernie Mitchell. “Arson destroys neighborhoods and shatters lives. I encourage all residents to team-up with local fire department and law enforcement officials to put an end to arson in their community.”
When most people hear the word arson, they think of urban areas with high crime and dilapidated houses. They think of Detroit, the subject of the film “BURN” coming to Hartford’s Real Art Ways June 3 and 4. BURN tells the story of the Detroit Fire Department trying to save the city from an arson epidemic.
But if you think it’s just a city problem, you’re wrong.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arson – intentionally and maliciously setting fire to buildings, wildland areas, vehicles or other property – is the number one cause of fire property damage in the United States each year, responsible for over 500 deaths, thousands more injuries and some $3 billion in property damage.
In Connecticut, a Fairfield man went on an arson spree of vacant homes in 2011, injuring several firefighters. The same year, an 8-year-old boy was the victim of an intentionally set triple-fatal fire in New Haven.
Closer to home, a wildfire in East Haddam last spring consumed more than 50 acres of Devil’s Hopyard State Park. The cause is still thought to be an abandoned campfire or carelessly tossed cigarette. Arson has not been ruled out in the case of a suspicious fire in a new construction last year in Moodus. Moodus has suffered its share of deliberate fires. In 2009 it was the site of a six-alarm arson fire that destroyed a building at Machimoodus State Park, while in Haddam, residents are unlikely to forget two local men who set fire to 15 school buses in 1994.
Arson is more prevalent in densely populated areas – a 1994 study by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) found that the rate of incendiary or suspicious fires in cities of 250,000 was more than twice the rate for cities of 5,000 to 10,000 people. However, an old shed or newly constructed home can be the target of arson no matter where you live.
“It can happen anywhere, for many different reasons,” said Haddam Deputy Fire Marshal Bill Robbins. “People used to only associate arsons with insurance fraud, while in fact, most are not. Fire can be used as a weapon to vent frustration, get revenge or simply to get attention.
“That’s why it’s important that we remain vigilant to protect our lives and property.”
The public can be engaged in Arson Awareness Week by implementing neighborhood clean-ups, along with improving internal and external security for their homes and abandoned properties.
For more information and resources for the 2013 Arson Awareness Week campaign, please visit www.usfa.fema.gov/aaw.
Do You Have What It Takes? Find more information on the activities of the Haddam Volunteer Fire Co. and ways you can get involved at our website www.HaddamFire.com, or connect with us on Facebook.
