Firefighters Setting Wildfires? It's Worse Than You Think.

CBS wrote a great article about it in 2009.

You’ve probably heard of firefighters being arrested for arson. It happens more than you might imagine.

There is no way to know how many of those fires involved firefighters. But the headlines raise serious questions:

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• This summer, massive forest fires in Colorado and Arizona swallowed up thousands of acres of timber and every home that got in the way. Investigators say the fires were both started by firefighters.
   
• Weeks later in California, a 19-year old forest service firefighter was arrested for setting five fires near San Diego, destroying homes and paralyzing a community.
   
• In Pennsylvania, dozens of nighttime arsons terrorized the town of Kennett Square. The culprit was not only a volunteer firefighter, he was the son of the town’s assistant chief.
   
• In Missouri, a volunteer firefighter is awaiting trial for murder for setting a fire that led to the death of a fellow firefighter.
   
• In Tennessee three years ago, six volunteer firefighters were arrested for setting an abandoned home ablaze, accidentally killing another volunteer fireman. But he didn’t die fighting the fire; he died spreading gasoline in the attic, when the home burst into flames

In most cases, the firefighters were volunteers. But then, close to 75 percent of the firefighters in the country are volunteers.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500164_162-530103.html

Now, this year, once again, we have massive forest fires with suspicious beginnings.

The Black Forest fire has easily become Colorado’s most destructive fire in its history.

However, in a sudden turn of events, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa says the fire could likely be started by someone.

http://www.latinospost.com/articles/21506/20130615/black-forest-fire-news-update-maps-natural-calamity-maybe-arson.htm

Last year, in the same area, the worst fire in Colorado history at that time, was human caused, of course, no one has been caught.

Lance Bean says he spent more than two hours yesterday with the FBI describing what he saw on Rampart Range Road on June 23.

On Tuesday, June 26, the fourth day of the Waldo Canyon Fire, Bean posted an ad on Craigslist — “WALDO CANYON ARSONIST” — writing: “I was on Rampart Range Road and saw the Fire basically when it started. I have video and pictures and believe I know who started the fire.”

Truth is, volunteer firefighter is like a voluntary military. They get paid, and well…But there needs to be a fire to fight.

Terry Lynn Barton was trained to spot the first glimmerings of fire in the Pike National Forest in Colorado, where she worked as a seasonal employee for the United States Forest Service.

Leonard Gregg was a part-time firefighter on the Fort Apache Indian reservation in Arizona.

So it was perhaps predictable that the arrest of Ms. Barton and Mr. Gregg, who are charged with starting the largest wildfires in the histories of their respective states, would revive the notion that firefighters and others whose work involves putting out fires were also more prone to set them.

Arson, an environmentalist in the Northwest declared confidently in newspaper accounts after the arrests, is wildfire fighters’ ”dirtiest little secret.”

A former fire department engineer in Arizona told a reporter that most arson fires were started by active or retired firefighters — a fact he said he had learned in his training.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/09/science/do-firefighters-like-to-set-fires-just-an-urban-legend-experts-say.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

My theory is that many of these are Federal agents setting these fires, to create evacuations so they can comb through peoples homes. It’s a win win for everyone except the citizens. Firefighters get paid more, suppliers get to sell their products for fighting the fires, insurance companies get to raise their rates, the Federal govt gets to charge the taxpayer for the fires, and targets areas where whistleblowers live..

SAN FRANCISCO – A San Francisco man was arrested Monday after he somehow gained entrance to a fire station, dressed in a female firefighter’s clothes, and gave a rambling statement about working for the military, spokespeople for the police and fire departments said today.

When asked what he was doing there, Miller replied that he “worked for the army and was waiting for an emergency call on the DNS phone,” police spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield said.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=7893122

A man accused of posing as a firefighter in Larimer County during the High Park fire, has now been arrested in Jefferson County for suspicion of the same offense during the North Fork fire, officials say.

Michael Maher, 30, has been arrested for investigation of theft, criminal impersonation and impersonating a public servant, said Mark Techmeyer, Jefferson County Sheriff’s spokesman.

Read more: Man accused of posing as firefighter in Jeffco as well as Larimer – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20976576/man-accused-posing-firefighter-jeffco-well-larimer#ixzz2XFMbsNec
 

A Murphy man was arrested Saturday after posing as a Dallas firefighter at a Plano firehouse, fire officials said.

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/man-arrested-after-posing-as-dallas-firefighter-at-plano-

firehouse.html/