Justin Halstenberg (35), was convicted of starting the 2024 Line Fire in Southern California. The fire was found to have been started by an incendiary device. Investigators initially found Halstenberg’s vehicle license plate in pictures from an automatic license-plate reader in the area of the Line Fire. Subsequently, during the investigation, Halstneberg was linked to the fire by device construction.

In 2023, Adam Ewing (18), a volunteer firefighter from Saltillo, PA, was charged with starting 21 fires. Ewing plead guilty to all of the charges. Toilet paper was used to start several of the fires.

An Ohio dispatcher and former police officer plead guilty to starting 26 fires in the Wayne National Forest. Let's take a quick look at his motives for starting the fires.

How often have you done shoe or tire impression casting in your career? Don’t overlook the investigative gold you might be missing by failing to cast.

Have you heard this before? “I am not an arsonist. I was just cleaning up vegetation, debris, garbage etc.” If you have worked enough arson cases, gone to enough trainings or read a few arson books, you’ve probably have heard this line before.

Recently, a volunteer firefighter was arrested in Texas for starting several grass fires.  Newswest9.com reports several devices used to start the fires were located during the investigation.  The article did not expand further on the details of the investigation or the incendiary device construction.  While not much more can be learned, at this time, from this specific investigation, we can learn from other cases involving firefighters and arson.  While not commonly used, research tells us incendiary devices are more likely to be found in wildland arson than in urban arson.  Additionally, firefighter arsonists are more likely to use incendiary devices. 

In the article Michigan city’s blight gives rise to increased arson by Ron Fonger (originally posted on mlive.com), the author dives into the arson problem in Flint Mich.

In the article, Delving into the mind of an arsonist by KNEWS, the author interviews a criminologist and a psychologist to find out what makes an arsonist tick. Is it science or a sham?

What does it take to catch a serial wildland arsonist?  Does flying around looking and waiting for an arsonist to start a fire sound like good police work?  In the Interlochen Public Radio article entitled To Catch an Arsonist, by Daniel Wanchura, they describe an arson case in 1984 near the Great Lakes where investigators did just that.  After a series of suspicious wildland fires with no “clues or leads,” and “out of desperation” investigators take to the air to catch the arsonist in the act.