Two French firefighters admitted to starting brush fires on the island of Corsica on July 8 and July 14. Their motivation: overtime bonus pay of 19 euros for nighttime work (July 
and 38 euros on July 14, for Bastille Day. (HT: Arnaud Loutrel) [%comments]
Fire-Starting Incentives
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I work in wildland firefighting and while I would like to say this doesn’t happen in America, it’s not unheard of. It’s a shame that the monetary compensation outweighs the potential damage that these actions could cause.
A good friend of mine is a fire marshall, and he confirmed this type of story, and that it occurs throughout the U.S.. The thing is, he told me this nearly a decade ago.
After seeing stories like this for more than ten years, I’m not sure that incentives are the problem. Although it was unsaid in the article, salaried firefighters don’t start fires nearly as frequently as volunteers. I was shocked to hear that quasi-volunteers — the ones who get a small payment when they actually get called out on a fire — are the largest group of arsonists. My friend said that the combination of excitement and a little bit of money is the perfect incentive to these volunteer firefighters setting fires. The pro firefighters, however, are much less likely to start fires. He said that the reason may be the money. But he said a more likely reason may be the perceived risk!
You see, he noted that the arsonist firefighters tend to start brush fires (like the Corsican fire) and torch abandoned buildings so that no people get hurt or valuable property gets damaged. Professional firefighters, however, tend to work in metro areas where buildings are close together. Starting a fire in a city has a much higher probability of spreading to an occupied building, leading to catastrophe. Volunteer firefighter arsonists tend to not be malicious. They just want some excitement and a few bucks.
In other words, what differentiates the pro versus the volunteer firefighter is the concentration of people and buildings, and the corresponding probability of catastrophe, not the just incentive system.
He summarized by saying that, although most of the arsonist firefighters are looking for a little extra money and a thrill, sometimes what seems to the perpetrator to be an innocent burn turns into something terrible.
In this case, I’m sure the money did make a difference, but there’s plenty of cases in which the firefighters are volunteer. Calling the fire takes them from being an ordinary nobody to the town hero.