Where There's Smoke

It is stating the obvious to say that different people raise fires for different reasons. Financial reward, political gesture, revenge, and vandalism are all motives for fire-setting. Numerous systems of classification have been put forward in an attempt to categorise the different types of arsonists, all of which are subject to a degree of overlap. But for the sake of this study the two broad group headings suggested by Faulk will be used:

Group I: Fire serves as a means to an end.

Group II: Fire itself is the phenomenon of interest.

Examples such as arson for insurance claims or to cover evidence of another crime fall into Group I. For the most part, pathological fire-setting, or pyromania, falls into Group II. Pyromania (an older term is incendiarism) is an impulse-control disorder characterised by a recurrent failure a to resist impulses to set fires, and a fascination with watching them burn.

The fire-setting is typically undertaken without any obvious monetary, revenge, or political motivation, and is frequently accompanied by increased tension before starting the fire, and intense pleasure or release during and afterwards. In extreme cases this gratification may take the form of sexual excitement (pyrolagnia, or erotic pyromania).

According to Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods using a hollow stick. Freud and Jung said this could equate to both the male and female organ, and indicated a degree of identity/gender confusion which they thought characteristic of fire raisers.

Subsequent studies seem to bear out this observation, showing that most pathological arsonists are young adult males, many of whom have serious social and sexual relationship problems (a trend which also applies to arsonists in general). Pathological fire setters frequently suffer from considerable psychosocial disadvantages as a result of personal inadequacies (actual or perceived) and adverse social conditions. Studies have noted that nearly all children who raise fires experienced inadequate relationships with their parents, and there is evidence that a high proportion have some form of minor physical abnormality, such as obesity or harelip.

Pyromania may be thought of as an addiction wherein the short-term “benefits” (i.e., excitement, gratification) take precedence over the negative long term consequences.

There were four case studies, simply referred to as A, B, C, and D. Kate began to read the first closely, but skipped to the end when it was obviously unfamiliar. The second she also skimmed. When she reached the third, she found what she had been looking for.

C is a twenty-five-year-old white male, of above average intelligence and from a middle-class background. The family group was dysfunctional, with frequent violent arguments between the parents that would often extend to verbal and physical attacks on C and his two brothers, followed by periods of neglect when the parents entered a reconciliation stage. As the youngest and therefore lowest in the family hierarchy, C was often subjected to sibling bullying. When C was five years old he had his fingers put into a lighted gas fire by one brother. This would bear out Jackson’s observation (1994) that some arsonists have been victims of fire themselves at some point. Although it is not possible to say that this experience was the direct cause of C’s later obsession with fire, the trauma subsequently left him with a speech impediment in the form of a severe stutter, which exacerbated his sense of personal inadequacy and contributed further to his growing isolation from family and peer group. It should be noted that neither of his two brothers exhibited any corresponding dysfunction, although the elder may have had a latent inclination towards kleptomania, indicated by an arrest for shoplifting shortly before his death.

C’s history of fire setting began at the age of ten, when he set fire to a curtain in the family home. His subsequent beating by both parents, and later his brothers, appears to have had the opposite effect to deterring him, forcing him into a spate of fire raising that culminated six months later in his burning down a shed in the local park. This resulted in the first police involvement, following which he was recommended for psychological assessment.

There followed a period of relative stability, lasting for eighteen months, when C started no fires. However, this also coincided with his going to stay with his paternal grandmother, when his father was imprisoned on a fraud charge. Away from the family home, his condition appears to have improved markedly, and it was only after his return there, following his father’s release from prison, that his fire setting resumed.

At fourteen he was caught after setting fire to school outbuildings. This time he was referred for psychiatric treatment, following which he was recognised as exhibiting negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as withdrawal from social contact, intense apathy, and being acutely ill at ease in the presence of other people. However, C’s pyromania was ascertained to be a pathological problem rather than a symptom of his schizophrenia. At no time did he claim to have “heard” voices telling him to start fires, or report any other delusional ideas, as is typically the case when the fire setting is a result of an organic psychiatric disorder.

His compulsion to start fires, and his obsession with watching them, seems instead to have stemmed from an unconscious urge to purge himself of negative emotions. This frequently took the form of setting fire to an object associated with them (as, for instance, the attempt to burn down the school outbuildings, where he had been beaten by a gang of boys several days earlier). However, C’s intense guilt following each incident of fire setting would generally result in his becoming even more withdrawn and isolated, thereby creating a need to start further fires.

C’s schizophrenia appeared to respond well to treatment with anti-psychotic drugs, and once again his pyromania appeared to be under control. However, he was badly traumatised by the death of his paternal grandmother when he was fifteen. This came shortly after an argument between the grandmother and C’s parents, in which his welfare was the central issue. On the evening of his grandmother’s funeral, C set fire to his home, killing both his parents and brothers. Even now he still appears unclear over his intentions in setting this fire, and it is possible that it was set with no real regard for the consequences. He was interrupted by the emergency services in the act of pouring petrol over himself outside the burning house, clearly with the intention of self-immolation.

C was sectioned under the Mental Health Act, 1983, and transferred to a young person’s secure unit, where he was treated with therapy and the anti-psychotic drug Clozapine. In addition, C also received speech therapy to alleviate his stammer. He responded well, and was discharged after eight years into the supervision of a psychiatric social worker and clinical psychologist. He currently seems to have adapted well to living in the community once more, and has been found supervised work within it. To date there has been no recurrence of fire setting, and he expresses a strong understanding of his condition, and a desire to overcome it. Although he remains under psychiatric social worker monitoring, and bi-monthly psychological assessment, there seems a good possibility that, in time, this can be reduced.