Keep Your Child Safe!
The mission of the Youth Fire Setter Intervention Program is to identify and reduce the fire setting behavior of children who have been referred to the program because of their interest in fire. The ultimate goal of the program is to reduce the number of children engaging in unsupervised fire activity, thus reducing property loss and loss of life. In order to meet these goals, assessments, referrals, and fire education classes are provided to the community free of charge. The California City Fire Department works in conjunction with the Kern County and Bakersfield City Fire Departments to provide the program free of charge to children and young adults.
CCFD provides specialized fire safety education for at-risk children ages 2-17 with an interest in or a history of starting fires, initiating bomb threats, creating destructive incendiary devices or pulling fire alarms.
Referred youth and families attend a family-oriented Firesetter Intervention Workshop and participate in discussions, intervention activities and video presentations. The duration of the workshop is approximately two hours in length, with additional follow-up and resources provided to families as needed.
Any parent or guardian may refer a child to the Juvenile Firesetter Prevention and Intervention Program by contacting us here.
- Children " playing" with fire start over 100,000 reported fires annually in the United States.
- Yearly, fires set by youth cause an estimated 350 deaths and over 3,000 injuries.
- Fire protection costs and property loss attributed to youth-set fires exceeds $350 million annually.
- More than 50% of persons arrested for arson are under 18 years old.
- Almost 7% of youth arrested for arson are under the age of 10!
- More than 80% of children who set fires will be repeat offenders if left untreated.
- If united, a community or region can address the existing needs communicated by children and youth through their fire setting behavior.
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