Playing with fire: Trend of arsons by children a growing concern

Jun. 18—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — It's not the number of fires set across Cambria County in recent months that has caught responders' attention.

It's the ages of the individuals setting them.

Since late December, authorities have investigated at least eight structure fires started by children — including separate incidents in Patton Borough and Greater Johnstown where two or more fires were set by young arsonists, State Police Fire Marshal Carl Richards said.

Two children started a Woodvale blaze in March, and one was just 6 years old.

To Richards, it's a dangerous trend that can leave investigators few options for a remedy.

While teenagers charged with arson in the juvenile or adult systems can be ordered to enroll in "fire-setters" education programs and undergo mental health evaluations, it's not the same for children too young to be "culpable" in the court's eyes.

There's no program in place in Cambria or Somerset counties to educate young offenders about the dangers and potential consequences of fires — or evaluate why they are setting them — something Richards and other local officials hope to change.

'Thought it was fun'

Last year, four teenage girls from the three different school districts were charged with felony arson for burning a vacant Ferndale house on Vickroy Avenue in April 2021.

Authorities said the teens posted a SnapChat video of their actions.

An Upper Yoder Township police officer had to race into the home to rescue a family in an adjacent apartment before being treated for smoke inhalation.

This spring, four more juveniles were charged with setting three separate Johnstown fires.

"They thought it was fun," Johnstown police Detective Corey Adams said at the time.

Richards has been working as a state police fire marshal or deputy since 2013. He has had the duty of determining the cause and origin of significant or suspicious fires in every corner of Cambria County.

From year to year, he estimated at least 25% of the fires set across the region have been lit by children.

But most of the time, the fires aren't criminal arsons.

They are committed by children who set small fires that get out of their control — or without considering that they could destroy their home or someone else's.

"Oftentimes, they aren't thinking of the consequences," he said, noting that the results could be fatal.

Fires set to an air mattress and a toy box damaged a Johnstown apartment in February.

This week, an 8-year-old boy who found gasoline accidentally gutted his family's West End garage, investigators said.

"Intentional or unintentional," Richards said. "These are serious incidents. They could take somebody's life."

Jim Buday understands that better than most.

Emergency responseBuday served as a firefighter on Feb. 15, 1989, when a colleague at Johnstown's fire department, Richard Roberts, was electrocuted while climbing a truck ladder outside a smoldering apartment building.

Roberts' air tank came in contact with high-tension lines during his climb to rescue a family inside one of the units, the investigation showed.

As it turned out, a youth in his early teens set the fire that day, according to Buday, who now works as a director for youth program development for the Alternative Community Resource Program.

Roberts' death devastated the firefighting

But it also prompted the community to take action.

Local firefighters, himself included, received training to develop a juvenile fire-setters program in Johnstown that worked with individuals as young as 3 years old.

The goal was to identify what was causing them to set fires in the first place and then educate them about the risks and consequences of those choices through real-life stories children understand.

The program ran for nearly 20 years — the last 15 of those years through ACRP. But maintaining the funding to cover costs such as coursework, continuing education and instructional costs became a problem and the program faded away, Buday said.

Buday said funding remains for children old enough to be ordered to complete the program through the juvenile court system.

For those too young to go through that system — typically those under 12 — parents must give permission for their children to enroll in a program, according to Johnstown Fire Chief Bob Statler.

He was able to work with one family in March to enroll a child in a Blair County program.

But parents aren't always agreeable, he said at the time.

And Altoona's taxpayer-funded program isn't set up for children outside its community.

Tracking the reasons

Buday said there are many reasons children set fires.

"With teenagers, they might be doing it for revenge or excitement," Buday said.

"But with the younger kids — it's different," he said. "It might simply be a child that's curious or it could be a situation where they are victims of other issues, such as abuse, poverty or neglect. It may simply be a cry for help. and the assessments we had in place are important to digging to the bottom of it."

If left unchecked, child arson could be a sign of more serious issues later in life, including other violent behavior, Buday said.

That worries Richards.

Without a method to mandate that the community's youngest offenders undergo evaluations or fire safety training, "a lot of kids can fall through the cracks," Richards said.

Faulty figures

Through the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System, law enforcement officials are expected to report juvenile crimes of all kinds — including arsons.

In 2021, just 66 incidents were reported statewide involving children under the age of 18 — nine of which were committed by children under 13.

Only 39 of those incidents resulted in children going through the adult or juvenile courts to address the problem, records show.

Through May, just five 2022 fires had been reported statewide involving children under 13.

That figure isn't even enough to cover the number of children involved in Johnstown this year, let alone the rest of Cambria County or the state of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Richard McGarvey doubts statewide figures are anywhere close to accurate.

They only cover intentional, criminal acts — not fires carelessly set, he said.

Both he and Cambria County District Attorney Greg Neugebauer speculated that the true accounting likely slips through the cracks because law enforcement agencies focus largely on crime reporting.

In incidents where adult or juvenile courts don't get involved, the responsibility to report the figures often falls on volunteer fire departments.

McGarvey said his office also has a state incident reporting database — but departments aren't legally required to provide case specifics.

Across Pennsylvania, most fire departments are too inundated with trying to keep up to date with their own fire safety certifications and fundraising to keep their engines running to deal with even more paperwork, McGarvey and Neugebauer said.

"Volunteerism is down. They're busy trying to keep their departments afloat," McGarvey said.

It's a difficult time for firefighters, Neugebauer said.

"When you sign up to serve as a volunteer, you basically sign up to give up your time on overnights, you're spending your own time and money to fundraise," Neugebauer said.

Then there are the legal gray areas that filing details about juveniles can move into.

"Once you talk about children that young starting fires, you start getting into nondisclosure rules, privacy laws," Neugebauer said.

Concerns, hurdles

There's a far worse category Richards is concerned about: fatalities.

So far, the area has been fortunate that none of the fires set over the past year have claimed any of the children who set them, he said.

"These kids (involved) are lucky," he said.

"Once it starts to spread, anything can happen."

McGarvey said it's a concern in his office, too.

There may not be statistics to confirm a rise in youth-involved fire cases, but there have been anecdotal stories from fire departments that have sounded the alarm that the issue continues.

And it's clear the number statewide intervention programs has only decreased, he said.

That's why Richards and Buday want to see a regional program established.

Instead of adding to the workload and budgets of individual departments, they would like to see a countywide program established that, ideally, could be offered in multiple locations, so that accessibility isn't an issue for for families.

Richards suggested a northern and southern Cambria County — and perhaps a Somerset County partnership.

Buday, who patterned his original program after a results-based initiative in Oregon, said separate courses should be developed for younger and older children — the latter involving those ages 10 to 18 — based on the most effective ways to reach them.

The former firefighter said he'd work as an instructor and is certain others would, too. But he estimated it would cost $8,000 alone just to acquire up-to-date educational videos, course materials and other instructional supplies to deliver the program.

Then there are the costs to reimburse instructors for their time and training, and ongoing costs to keep the program running.

Buday said he has applied for a Federal Emergency Management Grant and has also explored local funding options.

The hardest part is establishing something that could continue from year to year, Richards said.

"It has to be sustainable," Richards said.

"And it should be regional — because this is a problem everywhere."

McGarvey said through Pennsylvania's Act 91 of 2020 and a 2018 Senate resolution, state officials are giving his office and others more opportunities to address statewide issues.

He intends to hire a specialist who could work with departments and communities to establish juvenile fire-setter intervention programs.

"And we'll certainly talk to (Cambria County) to see what we can make available to them," McGarvey said. "We can't force anyone to start a program, but if there's interest within a community, we're more than willing to do what we can to help."