Beck: Arson injures thousands each year
Georgia Arson Control aims to help catch and prosecute arsonists.
Georgia Arson Control aims to help catch and prosecute arsonists.
The loss of 10 firefighters a year to arson fires may not sound like an overwhelming number, but the loss of one life a year is too many for Jim Beck, president of the Georgia Underwriting Association and its Arson Control Program. Beck told members of the Rome Exchange Club on Friday that more than 7,800 people were injured last year in intentionally set fires across the nation.
The longtime marketing and insurance industry executive said arson puts firefighter’s lives at risk and people understand the significance of human exposure to the crime. “We’ve shifted our focus away from talking about how much property has been damaged and the number of incidents to talking about firefighters and saving firefighters lives,” Beck said. “Amazingly you still have people who think of arson as a victimless crime.”
Beck said the entire purpose of the Georgia Arson Control Program is to raise awareness and generate funding for rewards of up to $10,000 for the arrest and conviction of individuals responsible for arson fires.
Beck said reasons for arson typically fall into three areas — revenge, profit, and the largest category, an effort to cover up a crime. He said successful prosecutions for arson are extremely limited, estimating that convictions occur in less than 10 percent of cases.
“We’ve seen a dramatic increase, a two-fold increase in the number of arsonists who are juveniles in the last decade,” Beck said. “We live in the most permanently excused society I think history has ever known; nothing is ever our fault. … The lack of accountability is changing who we are as a people.”
In response to a question from the audience, Beck said he would advocate a minimum wage for firefighters across the state. “Y’all spend all the money training a firefighter and somebody comes along and pays them 50 cents more an hour and they’re gone,” Beck said.