For the third year in a row, the number of arson fires reported in Honolulu rose in 2005, a trend law enforcement officials hope to curb through recent legislation aimed at combating deliberately set fires.

There were 547 arson fires in Honolulu last year, up from 427 in 2004 and 389 in 2003. That's a 40.6 percent increase over that two-year period.

The figures are the latest available from the FBI. Statistics for 2006 are not yet available, but several high-profile, deliberately set fires have highlighted the problem.

In late January, a Kalihi tire shop was hit twice by juvenile arsonists and the entrance to the state Department of Health building was firebombed.

This month, a deliberately set blaze gutted a 67-year-old building at the University Lab School causing more than $6 million in damage.

Law enforcement officials would not speculate on the reason for the rising offenses.

One resident said he isn't sure increased penalties or stricter enforcement will stop people from starting fires.

"There are people out there that really like fire," said Brent A. Buckley, professor of agriculture at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa who lives at the base of a grassy hill in Kapolei.

"I look at the hill above me and I hope that come summer time it doesn't burn down. It's scary, you set a fire in the right place and you get the right winds and you could burn a bunch of houses down."

The FBI defines arson as "any willful or malicious burning or attempting to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling, house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, or the personal property of another."

In Honolulu, arson offenses range from trash bin fires to large-scale building fires.

PENALTIES INCREASED

Earlier this month, Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law two bills establishing the criminal offense of arson in various degrees, increasing penalties and designating deliberately set brushfires as a felony.

One establishes Hawai'i's first arson law, and the other sets penalties for those who set brushfires that burn 10,000 square feet or more. Previously, prosecutors have said, it was difficult to go after people who started brushfires because the law required the property burned to have some value, which brush does not.

The second law includes a provision for parents to pay the cost of fighting fires set by minors.

Sesnita Moepono, a Honolulu attorney who carefully reviewed the new arson legislation, said she considers arson a very serious problem because property and lives are at stake.

Moepono, who also chairs the Liliha neighborhood board, said children and adults need to be educated about the dangers of playing with fire.

"The bills are great attempts to treat arson as a separate crime and the new laws create a whole new part in the statute. We're saying to the community that arson is a serious crime that needs to be treated separately and with higher penalties," she said. "We need to teach our kids how to act in a responsible manner in their communities because if kids are starting fires just for the heck of it, they need to be taught that they could kill somebody."

Since the laws only recently went into effect, police say it will take a few people getting into real trouble before the laws become common knowledge.

Honolulu police Maj. Michael Tamashiro, who overseas the department's District 8 including the brush-covered Leeward Coast, believes the brushfire law will help deter the firebugs who annually plague his area during the dry summer months.

Tamashiro, who regularly attends neighborhood board meetings in his district, said residents have expressed concern that the Leeward Coast will burn again this summer, snarling traffic, endangering homes and blanketing the area in a haze of smoke.

"Historically we didn't have (a law) specific to brushfires and with brushfires having no 'value' it was a tough crime for us to prosecute, so this is a tool that should help us," he said. "The residents themselves are fed up with it. They don't want to go through what they did last year and we need the community to be involved because police and fire cannot do everything themselves."

FIRES SET FOR FUN

Last year, Police Chief Boisse Correa, working with the Ho-nolulu Fire Department, formed fire squads made up of patrol officers in three districts susceptible to brushfires, arson detectives with the department's criminal investigation division, and fire investigators to look at the problem.

The task force shared intelligence, discussed trends and developed strategies to combat the problem. The task force will be reconvened this summer, Tamashiro said.

The Leeward Coast is not the only area on O'ahu where residents are anxious about rising arson offenses.

In Kalihi, residents are concerned that mounting piles of trash in small rural lanes will become fodder for fires if not cleared by the city. Many say that juveniles and adults run around starting small fires just for fun.

"We're uncomfortable (about the rising number of arsons) and all the things happening in our area. We deal with the problems the best way that we can. Boredom sets in and that's what they do — they start fires, they like to see things burn, I don't know what it is," said Bernadette "Bernie" Young, chairwoman of the Kalihi-Palama neighborhood board. "You've been reading about all the trash in Kalihi and I'm afraid someone is going to set a match to these things."

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.