[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8940]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNIZING THE FIRST WEEK IN MAY AS NATIONAL ARSON AWARENESS WEEK

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                         HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 6, 1999

  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Arson 
Awareness Week and to encourage all Americans to join in the crusade 
against arson. Each year hundreds of lives are lost and billions of 
dollars of property are damaged by arsonists. In 1997 alone, arsonists 
killed an estimated 500 Americans and inflicted direct property damage 
totaling more than two billion dollars. One of every four fires--some 
500,000 that occur in the United States each year--result from arson. 
Arson is the second leading cause of death by fire in the United 
States, topped only by smoking. Unfortunately, the pain and horror of 
most arson occurrences are felt in residential communities. Each year, 
more than 90 percent of all civilian deaths and suspicious structural 
fires typically occur in homes. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, an 
especially sobering fact of arson-related incidents is that 
firefighters lost their lives fighting these intentionally-set fires.
  There are steps each of us can take to prevent arson. First, owners 
of facant buildings should secure them to prevent vandals from setting 
fires for excitement. Second, parents of young children who exhibit a 
propensity to play with fire can call their local fire departments for 
a referral to a trained juvenile fire starter intervention program that 
will assist the child. Third, business and institutional property 
managers can call their local fire marshall for advice on how to arson- 
proof their buildings. This is especially important for church leaders 
who have in recent years seen their places of worship come under attack 
by arsonists.
  In my home State of Delaware our State Fire Marshall's office 
provides the resources to investigate fires, as well as maintaining an 
excellent Juvenile Fire Setter Intervention Program that helps hundreds 
of Delaware families each year deal with this very troubling problem. 
In 1997, the last for which full data is available, those 20 years of 
age and under accounted for 50 percent of all arson fires in the United 
States. Of that total, 39.9 percent were committed by youths under the 
age of 15.
  Mr. Speaker, it is with a great sense of urgency that I encourage all 
Americans to be aware and concerned with the burdensome cost that arson 
inflicts on our society. As Delaware's Congressman and a Member of the 
Congressional Fire Service Caucus, I strongly urge everyone to contact 
their local fire officials to learn more about what they can do to 
extinguish the arsonists' match.

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