Cooling the Fire in Young Arsonists

When Michael Geffen treats juvenile arsonists, he re-creates the emotional experience preceding the fire. If the child fought with his parents, Geffen encourages the parents to “get all over the kid’s case and really harass him.”

“Then we leave the kid alone in a room with one-way windows,” the Upland psychologist said. “We have planted some magazines and a lighter or matches near him. I want to see whether he picks up the material, throws it away or starts to light it.

“We try to discover the missing link with these kids. (It’s) usually the words to describe how they are feeling before setting fires. We’d like to replace fire-setting with words. Acting out the feelings rather than expressing them is what makes the children so dangerous.”

The soft-spoken 42-year-old therapist is among a few dozen psychologists in California who treat youthful arsonists. About half of the estimated 1 million arson fires in the United States each year are set by juveniles, according to the U.S. Fire Administration, and about 250,000 of those fires are set by children under age 12.

This year’s statistics may include two boys, ages 9 and 8, accused of starting a $275,000 blaze last week at Malabar Street School in Boyle Heights. Authorities say the boys have admitted setting the fire, which destroyed three classrooms at the school.

Two Categories

Geffen divides juvenile arsonists into two categories:

“Some kids are curiosity fire-setters and do not need to come here,” he said. “It’s the ‘professional’ fire-setter we are concerned with.

“They are kids who are not articulate or good at expressing emotion. They are often fearful of expressing themselves to their parents, or if they do talk, they do not discuss important issues.

“They are not aggressive leaders. They are not high achievers. Sometimes they have impulse disorders such as hyperactivity.

“One key is that they set fires after something has occurred in their lives. We look to find that background. It can be a spanking, a conflict with parents or a fight with friends. . . . These are kids who feel powerless and fire is very powerful.”

In addition, the vast majority of the young fire-setters are boys, Geffen said.

“For every female, there are 14 males. That’s because in society aggression and violent behavior are more accepted from men than women, and these messages get transmitted at an early age.”

Kenneth Fineman of Huntington Beach, one of the first Southern California psychologists to treat youthful arsonists, praised Geffen’s approach, which often requires offenders to spend six weeks or more as inpatients and heavily involves the parents in counseling sessions. Geffen said that in the five years since he started counseling, none of his 75 arson patients has set another blaze.

One of Geffen’s recent patients was Harold, 12, whose real name is not used because of his age. He became frustrated at his repeated failure to finish homework. Harold had been secretly lighting matches for about a year, and on this morning he went to his room, put his trash can on the bed and started again.

“I was blowing them out and putting them into the can,” the Hacienda Heights youngster said. “Then I dropped a match and it fell onto the floor and the bedspread caught fire.”

To avoid getting caught, Harold grabbed the plastic trash can liner containing the matches, put a new liner in the can, returned the trash can to its proper place and then fled from the home.

Flames Scared Him

“I ran down my street and told a neighbor our house was on fire,” he said. “I could have put the fire out, but when I saw the flames I got scared.”

His parents were working, so no one else was in the home and there were no injuries. Before the fire department extinguished the flames, fire gutted two bedrooms and the roof of the four-bedroom home and smoke and water destroyed all contents. Damage was $180,000 and the family has rented a house for a year while an insurance dispute delayed reconstruction.

Harold, who was 11 when the fire started, spent 16 weeks as an inpatient at Charter Oak Hospital in Covina. He said that prior to the fire he had had problems at school but was “afraid to go to my parents because they were mad at me for stuff I had done.” He also blamed himself for “getting bad grades, lying and sneaking.”

As a result of therapy, he said, it is easier to talk to his parents and he gets along better with his friends.

“I know that when I’m told to do something, I should do it,” he said. “It avoids trouble. And if I get into trouble, I know I should accept my problem without arguing.”

Another of Geffen’s patients, Billy, 9, an energetic San Bernardino third-grader, began lighting matches when he was 6. Over the next two years he burned the bottom of a poster on his closet door and lit an envelope which marred the surface of a coffee table. He also started a fire in a trash container behind a neighborhood movie theater and told firefighters that he saw a man set the blaze and run away.

His mother, Sarah, noticed other abnormal behavior.

Matches in His Pocket

“We would go to a friend’s home and he would come home with matches in his pocket,” she said. “He was always looking for them.”

Finally, Billy and two friends torched four feet of wooden fence behind a neighbor’s home.

“There’s a lot of dry leaves and grass between that fence and the home,” Sarah said. “If our neighbors had not been there, their house would have burned down.”

A short time later, Billy started seven weeks of inpatient therapy with Geffen. Billy and his mother, who is single, also moved from the large house where she took in boarders, to a smaller home and the two spend much more time together.

Billy still knows where to get matches. During a recent visit to Geffen’s office he pointed out that his mother kept matches in the glove compartment of her car. But he has not played with matches or started a fire in a year.

“I didn’t want to make any more damage or anything,” he said.

Harold also has stopped setting fires. “It’s stupid,” he said, “because of the damage it can cause.

“I feel better now because I am able to communicate with my parents more openly and they have changed, too. They had to work hard while I was in the hospital to change the way they treated me.

What He Would Tell Kids

“I would tell kids who light matches to talk to their parents and say ‘I’d like to tell you why I play with matches so we can get this resolved.’ ” Harold said. “I’m sure most of their parents would accept that and do something about it.”

“I’m sure his behavior has gone along with what he’s saying,” Geffen added. “Otherwise, he would be back in treatment.”

Geffen would encourage parents to listen to children who come to them with such messages.

“These kids are dangerous,” he said. “I do not understand how parents can sleep at night when they know the house may burn down.”