Secondary prevention of childhood firesetting

The Juvenile Fire Awareness and Intervention Program was established to develop and evaluate an intervention to be offered by fire fighters for children who set fires.

One hundred thirty-eight children, aged 5 to 16 years, with a history of firesetting participated in a randomized, controlled trial. The intervention involved education about fire safety and a behavior modification program designed to extinguish the desire to set fires through satiation. The frequency and severity of firesetting were recorded for 12 months after the intervention to measure outcome.

There was a significant decrease in the frequency and severity of firesetting across all groups, with no additional improvement resulting from participation in the fire fighters' intervention.

There is no evidence to suggest that the multicomponent program offered by trained fire fighters is effective in reducing firesetting. The marked reduction in firesetting across all groups suggests that fire safety education by the fire fighters is the most appropriate approach to this serious community problem.