Posted on: Monday, July 9, 2001
Fires set by kids burden Wai'anae
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
The first two fires were started on the same day in May.
Newspapers and trash were set ablaze on a stairwell at Wai'anae Elementary. Paper burned along the side of the cafeteria at Kamaile Elementary.
The next day, two portable buildings were damaged by fire at Wai'anae High School. Then another school fire broke out along the Wai'anae Coast. Followed by another. And another.
Seven fires in all — six of them at schools — between May 23 and June 21. All were on the Leeward side of O'ahu.
Detectives Robert Cravalho and James Anderson of the Honolulu Police Department's fire/arson detail quickly ruled out profit, revenge and jealousy as motives. They said that leads them to the theory that juveniles are responsible for the fires.
If youths did set them, the string of arson fires in Wai'anae highlights a national epidemic that costs more than $1 billion every year.
In Hawai'i and the rest of the country, children account for more than half of all arson arrests, said John Hall, assistant vice president for fire analysis and research at the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy, Mass.
Hall said that the crimes could be a sign of other problems among children.
"It may be a cry for help from the child," Hall said. "It could be a child facing some sort of abuse at home and this may be the only thing they can think of to draw attention to their intolerable situation, to reach out beyond the confines of the family. It may be an inappropriate response to doing badly in school. The family may be going through divorce. Or it could just be peer pressure."
Fire officials separate children who start fires into two categories: Children playing with matches or lighters account for 5 percent of all fires nationally, and juvenile arsonists are responsible for another 10 to 15 percent.
In Hawai'i, records indicate that juvenile arsonists tend to be 14- to 18-year-old males with histories of verbal abuse and perhaps some physical abuse.
The fire department has recognized the need for more scrutiny and is organizing a Juvenile Firesetters Program that will better coordinate psychologists, psychiatrists and social service and law enforcement agencies to get help for children who start fires, said Capt. Glen Solem, a fire investigator with the Honolulu Fire Department. The idea is based on programs in Mainland cities and could be running by the end of the year.
Some Mainland cities have tried to organize their efforts in similar ways, Hall said, but failed to properly deal with the true problems among some children.
"You need a careful analysis of what's going on in each child's life," he said. "You don't want to have a one-size-fits-all approach to juvenile fire-setters. That, too often, has been the case. Some communities call for extensive counseling. Others take a scared-straight approach. Inevitably, somebody gets left out of one of those two boxes."
Last month, Cravalho and Anderson handled 24 arson cases — a little more than average. One of them was a garage fire that began with 14- and 15-year-old boys drinking and playing with fire.
One of them got angry and decided to ignite the garage sofa. At least that's what he told firefighters.
When Cravalho interviewed them, the boys admitted to drinking but denied everything else.
In September, Cravalho interviewed a boy on Hausten Street who was far more cooperative.
There had been three fires in the boy's small, eight-unit apartment building.
Each time, the boy was in the area and eagerly offered information to firefighters.
Fire investigators traced the fires to the boy, and connected them to a "vanity motive."
The boy was being raised alone by his father, who worked two jobs. When the father came home, Cravalho said, "the boy wasn't as loved as he would have wanted."
It turned out that the boy, 11, was looking for a little attention.
