What types of children are most likely to start fires?
There is still little national data on children who set fires. The best information is from communities that keep good records about child-started fires. These data show that no single racial or ethnic group of children is more involved in fire play or firesetting than any other. They also show that more than half of children who start fires are between ages four and nine. As they get older, the frequency of child-started fires gets smaller. A surprising number of serious fires are started by very young children. Young children are most likely to start a fire inside their home (over half begin in bedrooms), and take greater risks simply because they don’t understand the risks.
