Fire departments need to be proactive in their approaches to investigating fire scenes, particularly with respect to arson. They must strive to involve individuals in the affected areas with the investigation of fire scenes and show them how they are directly affected by fires in their neighborhoods.

It is crucial that fire departments and fire investigators work to ensure that the residents of a neighborhood buy into the concept of community ownership. Those individuals also have to understand that assisting with the investigation helps both fire and law enforcement officials to safeguard them and their property.

Residents of a neighborhood should be made aware of the different ways they may provide information to authorities: by phone, through a personal meeting and so forth. Individuals should be encouraged to provide contact information that can be used in the event questions arise in the future, but they also should be made aware of ways they can impart their information anonymously — by leaving a message with a call to the local “crime stopper” telephone number if the community has one, for example.

Neighborhood residents often will have information concerning how a fire was started or who set fire to a particular structure; this information may be the difference between a suspect being identified and arrested, or left in the community to strike again. The question residents often ask of themselves, however, is “Why should we care?”

During the course of a fire investigation, it can be difficult to find individuals willing to speak to fire department personnel or law enforcement officials. Some people seem to act as if they are following some sort of “street code” rather than what should be the attitude of a law-abiding citizen: How I can help protect my family and the family of my neighbor? This is the crucial area where fire departments must make strong efforts to help shape the mindset of a community.

Put yourself in the shoes of a resident of a community. Why should I care? Why should I care if my neighbor’s house has been set on fire; and it has been determined to be the result of an arsonist? After all it’s not my house. Why should I care if someone sets a car on fire several blocks from where I live? It’s not my car.

What fire departments need to do is to proactively impress upon an area’s residents that the needless and destructive act of setting something on fire not only causes the intended victim to pay a price, but community to pay one as well. The price paid can be measured in terms of lives lost, property destroyed, revenues reduced, and the degradation of a neighborhood, a community, and if left unchecked, an entire city.

NFPA statistics show that in 2005 there were approximately 31,500 intentionally set fires in the United States. These fires were responsible for an estimated $10,672,000,000 worth of property damage. More than $9 billion of that total is attributed to structure fires. Intentionally set fires were responsible for nearly $7 billion of residential property loss and for 315 lives lost during that year. Arsonists instill a fear in the people who live in the neighborhood where they commit their crimes. That fear can be very real, and often times it keeps people from assisting with the fire investigation. That fear is the element arsonists count on to enable them to continue to set fires.

Fire departments must take advantage of every opportunity to educate the public on the importance of everyone helping to fight the crime of arson. If fire departments take a proactive approach, fear can be substantially reduced. Furthermore a proactive approach will aid fire departments in fostering good will in the community.

If a proactive approach is successful, the next time someone commits the crime of arson, instead of an area’s residents asking themselves “Why should we care?” they’ll be asking the fire investigators, “How can we help you protect our homes, our families our neighbors, their families, and our neighborhood?"