Last month, the Maine Fire Training and Education Department asked the National Fire Academy in Maryland to certify Cumberland County public servants as Juvenile Firesetter Prevention Specialists. Firefighter Brett Libby of Standish was among those to be trained.

Academy instructors Patricia Marsala and Cheryl Poage held two certification sessions at the new Westbrook Public Safety Building. The first session trained public servants as Juvenile Firesetter Specialists I and the second trained them as Juvenile Firesetter Specialists II.

Specialists I evaluate the risk posed by the a child under 18 who has already started a fire. Specialists I work with parents to prevent future problems. Specialists II educate the public through Juvenile Firesetter Prevention programs and have authority to contact necessary law enforcement officials, psychologists and school councilors.

Standish Firefighter Brett Libby attended both sessions in March and is now certified as both a Specialist I and II. Libby said he hopes to use his juvenile firesetter prevention training to educate the public about the dangers of fireplay. Libby says that the certification session has given him the knowledge to reach out to the community through various avenues. With his new certification as a Juvenile Firesetter Specialist I and II, Libby plans to upstart a juvenile firesetter prevention program through the Standish Fire Department.

For several months, Libby has been involved with a Juvenile Firesetter Prevention subcommittee run by the Cumberland County Fire Chiefs Association.

The subcommittee includes members of the Maine Fire Training and Education Department, the Maine Forest Service, the Fire Marshal’s Office, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department as well as local firefighters and police officers from Portland, Gorham, Standish, Gray and Scarborough.

John Beatty, head of the subcommittee, has dealt extensively with juvenile firesetters over the years. When he worked for the Portland Fire Department, he was constantly being called away from his district to deal with juvenile firesetters because he was the only Juvenile Firesetter Specialist II in the area. This is one of many reasons why he and the sub-committee asked for the National Fire Academy to conduct the certification sessions.

“Over 65 percent of all fires and 80 percent of all arsons in the country are caused by juveniles,” Beatty said, “Our state numbers reflect the national (statistics).”

He says the reason for this is that most children are not properly educated about fire. As a Specialist II, he has run juvenile firesetter prevention schools to teach children that fire is “a tool, not a toy.” He also believes that juvenile firesetting is often not a matter of a child’s curiosity, but rather “the manifestation of a social problem where the child is using fire to draw attention to the problem.” It is the juvenile firesetter Specialist I’s job to try to determine the reason for the child’s fireplay and evaluate the severity of the problem through cooperation with the child’s parents. If the parents refuse, they can be forced to cooperate through the court of law.

Beatty and the sub-committee are currently trying to schedule more certification programs through the National Fire Academy. They also hope to send volunteers down to the academy so as to be certified as Juvenile Firesetter Specialist trainers.

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