American
Fire, a nonfiction
work by Monica Hesse is the perfect reading material for a writer who wants to
put a little arson into her novel. Who thought lighting a fire under some old house
would be interesting and intriguing for her readers. Especially if said old house
was filled with historical records and artifacts. How, in this case, the arson
could graphically highlight a favorite theme of preservation in a way that no
one could miss. All the better that small rural towns and volunteer
fire departments were key points of Hesse’s book. Yes, that writer would be
me. Thank you, Monica Hesse, for being a valuable resource for my fiction.
As I said, my
work is fiction. Hesse’s is not. The string of arson cases in American Fire
started in late 2012 and went on for five and a half months. Long and costly months
for the volunteer firefighters of the eastern shore of Virginia. Hesse
described all the relevant details of the crimes, the punishments, and the
emotional toll the crime spree took on all involved.
These are some
of the pertinent facts that I’m taking with me after reading this book:
*The decline
of population and opportunity for an area once known for potatoes left an
abundance of empty buildings and potential targets.
*How a small
fire department took up a collection to buy a “chemical engine.”
*That they
parked that new engine in bays “designed for hand-drawn fire engines, not
mechanized ones.”
*Volunteer
firefighting tradition was handed down through generations as fathers taught
sons the basics. Way before structured classes and new methods came along.
*Actually,
the basic method stayed pretty much the same: surround and drown.
*The signal
that a fire was under control was the same, too. The black smoke of an active
fire being replaced by the white “smoke” of water evaporating into steam.
*An arson
investigator looks for the V—the smoke pattern that could trace the
point of origin. Also, the soot line, which would tell how the fire
burned, how long and how slow.
*Those clues
aren’t available if the house is reduced to ashes.
*Being part
of a volunteer fire company provided camaraderie as well as a vital sense of
importance.
*“Arson is a
weird crime. It doesn’t make one richer, unless there’s insurance; doesn’t give
one nice things; doesn’t get rid of an enemy (in a basic sense); doesn’t make
one famous (less than a 20 % arrest rate) … the visible remnants of an arson
are not what it has left behind but what it has taken away.”
*“Firesetting
is a behavior. Arson is a crime. Pyromania is a psychiatric diagnosis.”
*“To
journalists and professional storytellers, crimes are always more interesting
when they happen in folksy, safe communities than when they happen in big
cities.”
*The loss of
population and the change of employment opportunities cut down on people able
to volunteer for firefighting.
*This
particular arsonist wasn’t considered very good at setting fires. Not all eighty-three
fires resulted in complete destruction.
*“The key
was to create a public message (about the fire) in a way that would jog
people’s memories without disclosing any proprietary information or leading all
potential witnesses.”
*Anyone
could become a person of interest.
*“Under a
loose siding panel, someone had stuffed a lit rag and it was still smoldering.”
*“The flames
hadn’t fully involved the house … the departments … on their way thought they
could handle it.”
*Folie à deux is a French term which literally means “madness of two.”
*Wolfgang
and Helene Beltracchi forged $45 million dollars’ worth of art and were captured
in 2011. [Fact for my first BH book.]
*Charlie
Smith confessed to using rags to start fires. No accelerant was used. A point
in his favor when the judge was considering his sentence.
Fun fact: I was able to find a photo of
Bishop Hill’s first mechanized fire truck, and probably like the one Hesse wrote
about. It’s a vintage chemical engine that had been saved by a farmer and
stored in one of his buildings until his estate sale. It’s been restored, and
the Bishop Hill volunteer fire department brings it out for parades. In this
photo, it’s being driven by Jack Hawkins, a former fire chief.
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