The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), together with its partners in the Target Arson initiative, have released the following facts during this, Arson Awareness Week.
Arson is the second leading cause of death by fire in the United States, exceeded only by losses due to smoking. However, arson is the leading cause of property damage due to fires.
One of every four fires that occur in the U.S. each year - some half million - are arson.
Arson killed more than 500 Americans in 1996. Each year, more than 90 percent of all civilian deaths in incendiary and suspicious structure fires occur in residential properties - principally private dwellings.
Direct property damage from arson totals more than $3 billion in a typical year. One out of every four dollars lost to fire is as the result of arson.
Arsonists often escape punishment. Only 16 percent of arson offenses lead to arrest, and only 2 percent of those arrested are convicted.
In 1996 - the last year for which full data is available - those 20 years of age and under accounted for more than 60 percent of all arson fires in the United States. Of that total, 55 percent were under the age of 18.
There appears to be a growing link between arson and illegal drug activity. Preliminary results of a new study by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) suggest that between one-fifth to one-fourth of reported arson cases in major American cities are drug-related.
Last year, four communities that were experiencing an arson problem were selected by the National Arson Prevention Initiative (NAPI) as pilot communities to demonstrate the efficacy of building community-based coalitions to combat arson at the grassroots level. These cities are Macon, GA, Charlotte, NC, Nashville, TN and Utica, NY. Many of the activities these communities have engaged in have helped reduce arson events and also helped address some underlying societal issues as well. Their efforts include:
- Creating and maintaining interagency, intergovernmental arson task forces to investigate arson cases;
- Boarding-up vacant and abandoned structures that have potential to be reoccupied;
- Demolishing vacant and abandoned structures that present an arson and other crime hazards;
- Implementing stricter code enforcement efforts and putting anti-blight ordinances in place;
- Developing juvenile firesetter intervention and interdiction programs;
- Involving the community in arson investigations through "crimesolver" type programs;
- Promoting outreach programs in schools, houses of worship and other vulnerable facilities; and
- Conducting threat assessments of arson-vulnerable facilities with members of the community.
Incidentally, churches and houses of worship are not a major part of the U.S. arson problem, as they account for well under one percent of reported incendiary and suspicious fires. That said, arson is the leading cause of fire in houses of worship - accounting for 25 percent of church and related property fires. In recent years, the motivations for these crimes has been the focus of considerable attention and has raised the public's overall awareness of arson.
SOURCE: FEMA/USFA, National Arson Prevention Initiative, NFPA, and the FBI Uniform Crime Report. 4/98