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Firefighter arson a long-standing issue – expert

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Re: Firefighter arson a long-standing issue – expert

#51

Post by altairprime »

peddling-brink wrote: post #47
altairprime wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s probably a smaller percentage vs. doctors doing un-doctor things There's roughly 200 doctors convicted every year in the U.S. alone of criminal 'patient abuse or neglect', for data compiled between 1988 and 2026 [1]. While I'd prefer to cite the 'patient abuse' figure since 'patient harmer' is the most equivalent behavior to 'firefighter arsonist' (both cause the problem they treat), I think it's worth remembe…

> have a slim but non-zero chance of deciding to create problems that give them professional satisfaction to solve. Ahh right, my homelab.

My poor wording, sorry! Homelabs are a successful way to reduce 'I'm bored' crimes. I meant that, in any profession, creating a problem (self-quote) intentionally at work — not accidentally — is called 'making work for yourself so you get paid by someone to fix problems you created', and that is a perfect match for 'firefighter arsonist'.

(This could be nitpicked somewhat around not having added wording for e.g. 'test labs', 'staging', etc. The core issue equivalence is the criminal intent, not the simple fact that a problem is created.)

Re: Firefighter arson a long-standing issue – expert

#52

Post by defrost »

altmanaltman wrote: post #38
defrost wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite which there's a steady trickle of paediatricians (doctors specialising in child care) being rumbled for various forms of child related sexual activity. eg: earlier this month https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-03/perth-paediatrician-c...

Pedo is not the opposite of doctor though, is it?

It's not conducive to overall child health and well being, so absolutely not what is expected from a paediatrician.

Still, if you want to split hairs on various cases, there are the Dr Shipman's straight up killing patients, medical practitioners (nurses and doctors) with Angel of Mercy tendencies, and more than one surgeon with a cutting fetish, eg:

Top amputation surgeon had his own legs removed due to a fetish. Were his patients safe? - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/01/neil-hopper-...

Re: Firefighter arson a long-standing issue – expert

#54

Post by bryanlarsen »

keiferski wrote: post #4

Key information: There’s roughly 100 firefighter arsonists convicted every year in North America and all of them are serial arsonists, which means three or more fires,” Nordskog told CBC. According to Nordskog, firefighter arsonists tend to be young males who recently joined the fire service, who may become bored, desire recognition and struggle with anger or frustration. All things considered, it’s probably a smalle…

Fire fighters are probably the only profession that is deliberately and successfully under employed.

It's as it should be: fires are fairly random, so if firefighters are always busy fighting fires, then they aren't available if another fire breaks out.

I believe the calculation is that fire fighters should only be fighting fires 10% of the time to ensure that there are almost always fighters available.

Lots of other professions should not be always busy for the same reason: doctors, nurses, police, secretaries etc. The main reason why quarantines were continued so long in my country is because hospitals were at 110% before COVID and COVID was causing significant nurse burnout.

That deliberate idling of fire fighters might explain why they are more likely to create work for themselves than doctors or SRE's

Re: Firefighter arson a long-standing issue – expert

#55

Post by RobKohr »

seizethecheese wrote: post #5

I’m curious what other professions have analogous issues. Police who seed crime? (Surely.) Developers who insert bugs?

Funding research to create a deadly virus and becoming the nations head of the taskforce in fighting that virus and associated with the companies that made fortunes using a recently created poorly tested vaccine technology on the world to fight the virus.

Seems like a set of people that suddenly made themselves really useful.

...

You can also look at lots of events that trigger wars where the side looking to get into the war seems to have a very convenient tragic even to validate their entry into a war.

Or situations where people make other dependent on them so they can constantly save them from not being able to be independent.

Or people who like to pick fights try to make it so someone will do something that will unwittingly offend them.

The world is full of setups, many subconsciously created, so that one person can be the hero or main character in their own narrative.

Heck we even do it to ourselves when we procrastinate so much that we have to save ourselves with Herculean effort to get something done on time.

Re: Firefighter arson a long-standing issue – expert

#57

Post by Aurornis »

vladmk wrote: post #25
Aurornis wrote: post #7

I looked it up: About a million firefighters in the US, including volunteer firefighters. Having 1 in 10,000 of them convicted of arson each year is a wild statistic.

This is the fact that’s literally a .0001% chance

Your math is wrong for two reasons.

You forgot to multiply by 100.

You forgot to multiply by the number of firefighters around you. There is more than one firefighter working in your city or state.

Re: Firefighter arson a long-standing issue – expert

#58

Post by roody15 »

declan_roberts wrote: post #41

Arsonists drawn to firefighting field. People with mental health issues becoming therapists. People with eating disorders becoming dietitians. I'm trying to figure out what pathology I'm hiding as a software engineer.

As a software engineer you may be lacking a sense of selfhood(outside of external validation and roles). You may find you are kind of a people pleaser, confident at work, but also privately resentful at times.

The software engineering job skips dealing directly emotional regulation, experiencing emotions and directly confronting others in vulnerable way or a negative way like boundaries.

Instead you are given a problem, and you can fix the problem, control the variables and see if your solution works logically and tangibly.

You cannot do this with people interactions. Emotional orbits, feelings, insecurities, needs, wants are messy overlap .. are not easily definable , and flux … software engineers may not thrive here I would guess.

Re: Firefighter arson a long-standing issue – expert

#59

Post by hackeraccount »

zaik wrote: post #15
seizethecheese wrote: post #5

I’m curious what other professions have analogous issues. Police who seed crime? (Surely.) Developers who insert bugs?

> Developers who insert bugs I knew it was the developers!

I mean, it's true isn't it? I guess it's the rare firefighter who unintentionally starts a fire but I guess it's a different game.

Re: Firefighter arson a long-standing issue – expert

#60

Post by hackeraccount »

yieldcrv wrote: post #19
seizethecheese wrote: post #5

I’m curious what other professions have analogous issues. Police who seed crime? (Surely.) Developers who insert bugs?

There is nearly a 100% conviction rate of the closest family member if the spouse/child/parent dies soon after a life insurance policy is created My theory is that there is at least one serial killer that is a life insurance agent or someone that can see all the new policies

How would that work? I'm a generous guy, I like to help people. I'm also a psychopath who likes to kill people.

Kind of like Robin Hood but slightly crazier I go around murdering people who have just taken out policies to help out their beneficiaries.

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