BY FRANK McGARRY, ROBERT E. COLE, ROBERT CRANDALL, AND CAROLYN E. KOUROFSKY
It was a different kind of training from the start. The workshop’s participants included not only fire service members but also social work and mental health professionals and representatives of a wide range of community organizations. In many cases, the state fire marshal had personally asked them to take part.
Instead of just hearing a “how-to” lecture, they worked in small groups on case studies that challenged them to create solutions for preventing and dealing with juvenile firesetting. Rather than just hearing, “You should all work together,” participants found out they wanted to work together as groups, learning how other disciplines perceived the same issues and what resources and expertise they had to offer.
One firefighter, frustrated with an uncooperative firesetter and family, felt his department had no option but to wait for the next fire. A social worker responded that her agency had experience obtaining cooperation and could help to obtain needed services for difficult families.
A mental health representative added that if the family was brought in for an initial assessment, the representative’s agency would probably be able to support a longer term plan for services. An exchange of phone numbers followed.
One chief described how he had gotten into trouble by sharing information with a neighboring chief about a firesetter who had moved into the neighboring chief’s town. In response, a member from an established coalition in another part of that state explained how information could be exchanged safely with agency “memorandums of agreement” and the use of “release of information” forms drawn up by corporation counsel.
“We knew we were successful when people hung out together talking, after the workshop was over,” says Robert E. Cole, Ph.D., president of Fireproof Children/Prevention First. He has facilitated dozens of Juvenile Firesetting Intervention and Prevention Coalition Building workshops, which the company had created for the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM).
Getting people talking was the first goal of the NASFM workshops; keeping them talking was the second. Dozens of community coalitions, created or strengthened during one of the workshops presented in 36 states over the past four years, are still working together today.
THE COST
Every day, seven people are killed or injured in fires set by children.1 In 2002, the most recent year for which data are available, children were responsible for an estimated 13,900 reported structure fires, which resulted in 1,460 deaths and injuries and caused $339 million in property damage.2 This does not include the cost of responding to the fire, the loss of income, temporary housing, or the out-of-pocket expenses incurred as a result of these fires.
These numbers represent only fires serious enough for the fire department to be called. Several research studies have found that between 50 and 57 percent of elementary school children and between 81 and 88 percent of high school students reported having played with fire. Forty-four percent of middle school children reported having played with fire in the past year. 3-5
SHARING EXPERTISE
The Juvenile Firesetting Coalition Building program stressed the need for people from many disciplines to work together on the juvenile firesetting problem, which begins with recruitment. The Fireproof Children training teams were multidisciplinary: A fire service member worked with a mental health professional to lead the workshop. Activities were designed to get people from different disciplines working together. Sometimes that required courageous thinking.
“When you’re used to being the ‘go to’ person, you can feel threatened by a coalition in which many others have a role to play,” says Robert Crandall, who as a workshop trainer brings his 30 years of experience as a firefighter and investigator. “But juvenile firesetting is not just a fire service problem. It’s a community problem.”
The emphasis on bringing together disciplines paid off, even if some future coalition members didn’t attend a workshop. Those who did attend learned what agencies and services existed in other communities and almost certainly existed in their own. After the workshop, they contacted those agencies, knowing what they needed to say and the expertise those agencies offered, based on meeting their counterparts from other communities.
TAKING ACTION
Developing objectives and implementing plans was an important part of each workshop. At the end of the program, every coalition put together its own written community action plan and identified a coordinator who would report to the state fire marshal.
Some coalition plans required very basic steps, such as brainstorming on who should be members of the coalition and how to contact them. Other coalition members were already communicating, and their plans emphasized how to better market their existing programs. Still others were ready to focus on prevention, setting such goals as getting more involved with schools and other types of outreach.
FOCUSING ON COMMON SCENARIOS
The Juvenile Firesetting Coalition Building workshops focused on the most common problems, situations, and profiles of children encountered in juvenile firesetting. For example, the case studies that small groups discussed were not extreme cases chosen simply because they would make a good story. Not everyone liked this approach; some participants said the case studies were ambiguous. They were ambiguous because they were based on real situations encountered in every community.
In keeping with this “most common” focus, the workshops emphasized preventing the first fire. The definition of “juvenile firesetting” included both children engaging in ongoing experimentation and children who may have played with fire only once. Although it is critically important to maintain an effective intervention program, the number of child-started fires can be significantly reduced only by preventing the first fire.
Nine out of 10 children who start a fire reported to the fire department never set another one, yet such fires can be serious and even deadly.6 If we wait to intervene until after a fire has started, we will never significantly reduce the juvenile firesetting problem.
STATE FIRE MARSHAL’S ROLE
In states with successful coalitions, the state fire marshal’s office has recognized the importance of juvenile firesetting and has been available to help local fire services and community organizations to create and maintain networks. The most successful coalition building workshops were those for which state fire marshals identified their counterparts in other disciplines—fire service, law enforcement, mental health services, and social services—and personally contacted them to ask for their involvement.
“Someone has to take ownership,” says Jim Narva, former director of the Wyoming State Fire Marshal’s Office. “Taking action about juvenile firesetting is more than a once-in-a-while thing.”
Supporting community coalitions doesn’t necessarily mean running them from the state fire marshal’s office. It doesn’t mean that the state fire marshal will have or should be able to give all the answers. The most important thing a state fire marshal can do is to put people in touch with others who have faced the same issues.
State fire marshals can also elevate awareness of the juvenile firesetting problem. In Maine, where there have been some 600 child-set fires in the past several years, State Fire Marshal John Dean is working to bring the issue to the attention of the Children’s Cabinet, a group chaired by First Lady Karen M. Baldacci that creates and promotes coordinated policies and service delivery to support children and their families.
“Many individuals were concerned about juvenile firesetting and were working together, but it was often a single individual at an agency rather than the agency itself,” says Dean, who serves as president of the National Association of State Fire Marshals. “When that person was promoted or moved, that connection was often lost. We need to get many people involved at the institutional level.”
In Georgia, the statewide juvenile firesetting coalition includes the State Fire Marshal’s Office, Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation, Georgia Public Safety Education Association, Joseph M. Still Burn Center, and others. This group meets monthly and has formed guidelines for community juvenile firesetting programs that include having an assessment tool and a consistent referral process. Plans are in the works for a statewide 800 number called Kids Setting Fire – Inquire.
“Ultimately, we hope to have a statewide network of juvenile firesetting programs,” says Serena Baldwin, program director of the Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation. “Wherever the person calls from, we want to be able to refer them to their county’s program.”
LESSONS LEARNED
• It doesn’t have to be formal. Today, we would emphasize defining “coalition” very broadly as a group of people who can call each other and know the person they call will respond. We might even call it a network.
• Create a network and plan for your community.This coalition-building model works because it is needs based. The specific needs of your community, including geography, demographics, and available resources, will determine the best way to organize your coalition. You don’t necessarily have to have a certain number of people, though you do need representatives from several disciplines. You may not even need to get everyone around a table. The most important part of a coalition is knowing whom to call.
• Create short-term and long-term goals. Some of the needs your coalition will identify can be addressed relatively quickly. Others will take considerable time and resources. Each goal should have a specific timeframe and a designated person responsible for achieving it. Assume that there will be unexpected obstacles, and consider a contingency plan so that your action plan won’t come to a stop when you encounter them.
Fireproof Children has collected these and many more “lessons learned” from the Juvenile Firesetting Coalition Building Workshops in the handbook Juvenile Firesetting: A Community Guide to Prevention and Intervention, available at www.fireproofchildren.com.
Endnotes
1. Based on a five-year average data for the years 1994 to 1998 from National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Version 4. In 2005, the National Fire Protection Association noted that analyses after 1998 were complicated because of changes in NFIRS 5.
2. Hall, J. Children Playing With Fire. (Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association, 2005). 2002 data are from NFIRS Version 5.0 and include structure fires only.
3. Grolnick, W.; R. Cole; and P. Schwartzman. “Playing with Fire: A Developmental Assessment of Children’s Fire Understanding and Experience,” Journal of Child Clinical Psychology, June 1990; (19) 128-135.
4. Simonson, B. and M. Bullis. Fire Interest Survey: Final Report. Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior, College of Education, University of Oregon, 2001. Unpublished manuscript.
5. Cotterall, A.; B. McPhee; and D. Plecas. Fireplay Report: A Survey of School-Aged Youth in Grades 1 to 12. University College of the Fraser Valley, 1999. Unpublished manuscript.
6. Rochester (NY) Fire Department research data, 1985-1993.
FRANK McGARRY, president of Frank McGarry Associates, was the New York State fire administrator from 1979 to 1995. He is the senior policy manager for the National Association of State Fire Marshals and served as president.
