I responded to more arson fires than I can remember during my 30 year career. I can't describe the depth of my contempt for people who use fire as a weapon.
On Christmas Eve in 1992, we responded to an attempted arson at an apartment building. The tenant had broken up with her boyfriend, so to show her how much he loved her -
- he squirted a flammable liquid on her front door and ignited it. The fire burned itself out before we got there.
Two weeks later, we responded to the same address. This time the guy did it right; he torched the whole place, and the fire spread quickly to two adjacent apartments. While my nozzleman and I were inside the apartment, the ceiling and roof above us collapsed, covering us in burning debris and melted roof shingles. We had first and second degree burns on the exposed parts of our faces and necks (no hoods back then) and I had a couple of third-degree burns on the back of my neck and my upper back, where melted tar got between the brim of my helmet and the collar of my coat. (We were taken to the burn center at Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment.)
The arsonist hopped a bus to New York, was caught and extradited, and charged with first degree arson. He was allowed to plead guilty to malicious burning, was sentenced to fifteen years with all but five suspended, and actually served about 2-1/2 years. That still disgusts me after all these years...
