Forensics Journal - Stevenson University 2014 | Page 32

FORENSICS JOURNAL

What are the Best Practices for Preventing,
Identifying and Investigating Arson by
Firefighters?
Christopher E. Allen
The fire station in the bucolic northern Vermont village of Albany was
destroyed by fire in August 2013. The town, whose closest mutual
aid department was forty minutes away, lost all of its fire apparatus. Immediately following the fire, Albany Fire Department Safety
Officer Elmer Joerg was interviewed by the media as Joerg was one
of the first volunteer firefighters on scene. During a rambling six
minute interview, Joerg told WCAX News how “frustrated he was by
the crime” and stated “if somebody calls for help tomorrow I don’t
know what we’re going to do” (Reading). Within five days, Joerg
was arrested for setting the very fire that had “frustrated” him. Joerg
confessed after being captured on video surveillance setting the fire,
having used his personal access code to enter the station (Reading).
Further research revealed that a business and a house owned by Joerg
had previously burned (in separate incidents). The house fire resulted
in the death of Joerg’s father in law. Investigators planned on reopening both of these cases.

unpublished novel entitled Points of Origin, a book “that authorities
said mirrored his own life as a firefighter and serial arsonist” (Lee).
Some firefighter arsonists are lone wolves while others act in groups
or teams. One recent example of a lone firefighter arsonist was a
volunteer firefighter in New Hampshire arrested in September 2013
for setting multiple fires in February 2013 (Haas). A recent example
of a firefighter arsonist team is that of a current volunteer firefighter
and a former volunteer firefighter from the same department, who
were arrested in September 2013 for setting fire to a vacant factory
in Sellersville, Pennsylvania. Controlling and extinguishing the fire
required the response of 16 fire departments and 200 firefighters from
two counties (Domizio). A unique case involving a group of arsonist
occurred in the late 1990’s, when a “former volunteer firefighter was
attempting to secure his position back and encountered resistance
from the chief ” (United States Fire Administration 10). The former
volunteer firefighter and