Fires are the number one cause of death at home for children under six.  More than one out of every eight fatal structure fires is started by a child under age 15. The principal reason most children play with fire is out of curiousity. Troubled children may act out their anger or frustration by setting fires.  Abused children may cry for help.  Older children may set fires due to peer pressure, or as part of gang activity.

The dollar loss from juvenile firesetting continues to diminish the value of real property in Kenosha.  With the aid of computer tracking and quality assurance of fire incident reporting, it has been determined that juvenile firesetting is accountable for a significant amount of dollar loss and number of incidents.

To address this issue, the Fire Prevention Bureau provides the “Juvenile Firesetter” program to all juveniles apprehended in fire play.  This program is based upon the Federal Juvenile Firesetter program.  Additionally, all juveniles are referred to Juvenile Intake which is a division of Kenosha County.  Juvenile Intake then provides additional, on-going counseling and outside resources for the juvenile as well as the family.

It is the experience of the Bureau that “prevention” is the best defense against fire play.  Although the Juvenile Firesetter program is enormously successful, children who have the propensity for fire play that do not receive fire safety instruction continue to be “at risk.”   

2004 statistics:

Juvenile Firesetters Counseled:   41

Juvenile Firesetters Not Counseled:   6

Juvenile Repeat Offenders:   1

Juveniles Referred to Intake Services:   47