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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 mor

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 smaller percentage vs. doctors doing un-doctor things, cops, etc.

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alacritas0 3mo ago
This may also be subject to survivorship bias, and there may be a portion of firefighter arsonists who escape prosecution or conviction
- keiferski 3mo ago
  How is that any different than any other profession?
altmanaltman 3mo ago
I don't think you can extrapolate it to every profession lol. Even in your example, doctors and cops face much more scrutiny and doing an "undoctor" thing can mean your career is gone. It is far easier for them to comit arson tbh than do the equivalent opposite of their profession's general aims
- defrost 3mo ago
  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-chia-liang-saw-talks-to-paedophile-vigilante/106878402 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-03/perth-paediatrician-c...
  - altmanaltman 3mo ago
    Pedo is not the opposite of doctor though, is it?
    - defrost 3mo ago
      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-surgeon-amputated-legs-fetish-extreme-mutilation-patients-questions https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/01/neil-hopper-...
verisimi 3mo ago
> all of them are serial arsonists, which means three or more fires So, the number '100', has to wildly low, as some arsonists will not have been caught, or only started one or two fires.
altairprime 3mo ago
> 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 remembering that human beings — regardless of their profession — have a slim but non-zero chance of deciding to create problems that give them professional satisfaction to solve. [1] https://plaindiscipline.com/action-type/conviction-patient-abuse/ https://plaindiscipline.com/action-type/conviction-patient-a... —
- peddling-brink 3mo ago
  > have a slim but non-zero chance of deciding to create problems that give them professional satisfaction to solve. Ahh right, my homelab.
  - supersparrow 3mo ago
    This made me actually lol. I feel your pain!
  - altairprime 3mo ago
    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.)
    - peddling-brink 3mo ago
      No no, my apologies, just having a bit of fun. You were clear. It does make me wonder if we would see similar things in the software industry if it had a similar heroism attached.
bryanlarsen 3mo ago
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

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alacritas0 3mo ago

This may also be subject to survivorship bias, and there may be a portion of firefighter arsonists who escape prosecution or conviction

keiferski 3mo ago
How is that any different than any other profession?

altmanaltman 3mo ago

I don't think you can extrapolate it to every profession lol. Even in your example, doctors and cops face much more scrutiny and doing an "undoctor" thing can mean your career is gone. It is far easier for them to comit arson tbh than do the equivalent opposite of their profession's general aims

defrost 3mo ago
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-chia-liang-saw-talks-to-paedophile-vigilante/106878402 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-03/perth-paediatrician-c...
- altmanaltman 3mo ago
  Pedo is not the opposite of doctor though, is it?
  - defrost 3mo ago
    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-surgeon-amputated-legs-fetish-extreme-mutilation-patients-questions https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/01/neil-hopper-...

verisimi 3mo ago

> all of them are serial arsonists, which means three or more fires So, the number '100', has to wildly low, as some arsonists will not have been caught, or only started one or two fires.

altairprime 3mo ago

> 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 remembering that human beings — regardless of their profession — have a slim but non-zero chance of deciding to create problems that give them professional satisfaction to solve. [1] https://plaindiscipline.com/action-type/conviction-patient-abuse/ https://plaindiscipline.com/action-type/conviction-patient-a... —

peddling-brink 3mo ago
> have a slim but non-zero chance of deciding to create problems that give them professional satisfaction to solve. Ahh right, my homelab.
- supersparrow 3mo ago
  This made me actually lol. I feel your pain!
- altairprime 3mo ago
  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.)
  - peddling-brink 3mo ago
    No no, my apologies, just having a bit of fun. You were clear. It does make me wonder if we would see similar things in the software industry if it had a similar heroism attached.

bryanlarsen 3mo ago

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