Words of a Female Arsonist
Fire became a part of my vocabulary in my preschool days. During the summers our home would be evacuated because the local mountains were ablaze. I would watch in awe.

Below I have listed some of my thoughts and behaviors eight years after the onset of deviant behavior involving fire. I have also included suggestions for helping a firesetter.

Each summer I look forward to the beginning of fire season as well as the fall—the dry and windy season. I set my fires alone. I am also very impulsive, which makes my behavior unpredictable. I exhibit paranoid characteristics when I am alone, always looking around me to see if someone is following me. I picture everything burnable around me on fire.

I watch the local news broadcasts for fires that have been set each day and read the local newspapers in search of articles dealing with suspicious fires. I read literature about fires, firesetters, pyromania, pyromaniacs, arson, and arsonists. I contact government agencies about fire information and keep up-to-date on the arson detection methods investigators use. I watch movies and listen to music about fires. My dreams are about fires that I have set, want to set, or wish I had set.

I like to investigate fires that are not my own, and I may call to confess to fires that I did not set. I love to drive back and forth in front of fire stations, and I have the desire to pull every fire alarm I see. I am self-critical and defensive, I fear failure, and I sometimes behave suicidally.

Before a fire is set. I may feel abandoned, lonely, or bored, which triggers feelings of anxiety or emotional arousal before the fire. I sometimes experience severe headaches, a rapid heartbeat, uncontrollable motor movements in my hands, and tingling pain in my right arm. I never plan my fire, but typically drive back and forth or around the block or park and walk by the scene I am about to light on fire. I may do this to become familiar with the area and plan escape routes or to wait for the perfect moment to light the fire. This behavior may last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.

At the time of lighting the fire. I never light a fire in the exact place other fires have occurred. I set fires at random, using material I have just bought or asked for at a gas station—matches, cigarettes, or small amounts of gasoline. I do not leave signatures to claim my fires. I set fires only in places that are secluded, such as roadsides, back canyons, cul-de-sacs, and parking lots. I usually set fires after nightfall because my chances of being caught are much lower then. I may set several small fires or one big fire, depending on my desires and needs at the time. It is at the time of lighting the fire that I experience an intense emotional response like tension release, excitement, or even panic.

Leaving the fire scene. I am well aware of the risks of being at the fire scene. When I leave a fire scene, I drive normally so that I do not look suspicious if another car or other people are nearby. Often I pass in the opposite direction of the fire truck called to the fire.

During the fire. Watching the fire from a perfect vantage point is important to me. I want to see the chaos as well as the destruction that I or others have caused. Talking to authorities on the phone or in person while the action is going on can be part of the thrill. I enjoy hearing about the fire on the radio or watching it on television, learning about all the possible motives and theories that officials have about why and how the fire started.

After the fire is out. At this time I feel sadness and anguish and a desire to set another fire. Overall it seems that the fire has created a temporary solution to a permanent problem.
Within 24 hours after the fire. I revisit the scene of the fire. I may also experience feelings of remorse as well as anger and rage at myself. Fortunately, no one has ever been physically harmed by the fires I have set.

Several days after the fire. I revel in the notoriety of the unknown firesetter, even if I did not set the fire. I also return again to see the damage and note areas of destruction on an area map.

Fire anniversaries. I always revisit the scene on anniversary days of fires that I or others set in the area.
Fires not my own. A fire not my own offers excitement and some tension relief. However, any fire set by someone else is one I wish I had set. The knowledge that there is another firesetter in the area may spark feelings of competition or envy in me and increase my desire to set bigger and better fires. I am just as interested in knowing the other firesetters’ interests or motives for lighting their fires.
Suggestions for helping a firesetter. The likelihood of recidivism is high for a firesetter. The firesetter should be able to count on someone always being there to talk to about wanting to set fires. Firesetting may be such a big part of the person’s life that he or she cannot imagine giving it up. This habit in all aspects fosters many emotions that become normal for the firesetter, including love, happiness, excitement, fear, rage, boredom, sadness, and pain.

Prognosis given by psychiatrist: Prognosis is very guarded given the severity of her condition.

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2001 Richard Mortensen and Frank Brady, who were running a rural California meth lab, were charged with second-degree murder for starting a fire that spread through 242 acres of brush; two pilots died when their air tankers collided above the fire. A jury found the suspects guilty of lesser charges, and they were sentenced to at least seven years in prison.

2002 Terry Lynn Barton, a seasonal Forest Service worker, ignited Colorado’s Hayman Fire, which burned 138,000 acres and 133 houses — the largest fire in Colorado’s recorded history. Barton said she was burning a letter from her estranged husband when the flames escaped from a campfire ring. Investigators found matches in a suspicious array at the scene and no ashes indicating a letter had been burned. Barton pled guilty to arson and served six years in prison.

2002 Leonard Gregg, an occasional Bureau of Indian Affairs firefighter, started the Rodeo Fire on an Arizona Apache reservation, hoping to get a job on the fire crew. It spread rapidly and combined with the Chediski Fire, which was started by a woman whose car ran out of gas in the forest. (She wanted to draw the attention of a TV news helicopter to get rescued.) The Rodeo-Chediski Fire burned 467,000 acres and 491 houses — the largest fire in Arizona’s recorded history. Gregg was found guilty of arson-related charges, sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $28 million in restitution.

2003 The Old Fire in California’s San Bernardino Mountains burned 91,000 acres and about a thousand houses; it was also blamed for the fatal heart attacks of at least five people. In October 2009, Rickie Lee Fowler, by then a 28-year-old prison inmate doing time for burglary, was charged with arson and five counts of murder. Fowler’s trial is scheduled to begin in August; prosecutors say they’ll seek the death penalty.

2004 Van Bateman, a respected Forest Service fire crew boss who had 30 years of experience around the West, was charged with arson for setting two small fires (total 22.6 acres) in Arizona’s Coconino National Forest without proper authorization. Bateman said it was a common practice among fire crews who want to thin vegetation without the hassle of paperwork. According to the Arizona Daily Sun, Bateman told investigators, “The line between a good fireman and an arsonist is a fine line.” He pled guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to two years in prison.

2006 Volunteer firefighter Robert Eric Eason was charged with setting at least a dozen wildfires that burned a thousand acres of grass and 200 sheep in Northern California. More than 70 investigators worked the case and Eason was suspected of setting hundreds of fires. A jury found him guilty of arson and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

2006 Southern California’s Esperanza Fire burned 41,000 acres and dozens of houses and killed five firefighters. In 2009, Raymond Lee Oyler was convicted of arson and murder and sentenced to death.
2007 At least five suspected arsonists were arrested in connection with more than a dozen fires that raged from San Diego to Los Angeles, burning more than 500,000 acres and 1,800 houses and killing at least eight people, including homeowners and illegal immigrants who were camped in the desert scrub. Another suspect, Russell Lane Daves, rammed his pickup truck into a police car and was shot dead by police.

2009 Two firefighters drove their truck off a cliff and died while battling the Station Fire north of Los Angeles. Investigators view the fire, which spread to 160,000 acres and destroyed 89 houses, as an arson and homicide case. They’re offering a $150,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.

2010 On June 17, federal prosecutors filed arson charges against two eastern Oregon ranchers: Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., 68, and his 41-year-old son, Steven Dwight Hammond. The indictment says the ranchers ignited many fires in the Steens Mountain area over the past 28 years, burning at least 45,000 acres total, because they were frustrated with federal land managers for not setting enough controlled burns to stimulate grass for livestock. The suspects face potential sentences of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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Wildfire.
A fire that is huge, powerful, unstoppable.
A fire that burns so strong that it ignites those around it.
A fire that emits such a strong heat that all can feel it and know that its different.
A fire that burns and consumes the forest.I want that fire.

This was something that God impressed upon me two or three weeks ago. It was pretty vague at first but as time passed it became more and more real, I know I must start it.
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Life in prison without parole for barber who set homeless man on fire

A man who prosecutors said had a grudge against the homeless was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing a homeless man by setting him on fire with an emergency flare. The murderhorrified the densely populated area where the homeless man was a well-liked figure and spotlighted the vulnerability of the homeless to violent attack.
“My brother had a life — he was a human being,” the victim’s sister, told the court through sobs. “Even in a state of homelessness, he managed to touch so many lives.”

The arsonist reportedly disliked homeless people lingering near the barber shop where he worked. A co-worker later told police he had seen Martin shout at the homeless to move away from the shop, sometimes striking out at them. Carrying a bucket of gasoline and an emergency road flare, he found the homeless man standing in the driveway of a parking lot, soaked him with the gasoline, prosecutors said, then lighted the flare and set him on fire.
As he fled, passersby desperately tried to douse the flames, but the homeless man was burned alive.