Children and fire can be a fatal combination.  TVF&R has firsthand experience with that tragic reality – in 1996 its firefighters battled a 3-alarm fire at the Oakwood Park Apartments in Aloha.  The fire killed eight (three adults, five children), injured 14, and displaced 57 tenants.  To help safeguard your family and home, TVF&R provides services to families affected by a child misusing fire. Services include free screening, educational interventions, and referrals for additional assistance to any family who has a child that, in the past or currently, has firesetting behaviors.  In 2010, TVF&R saw 90 juveniles.

What to Do if your Child is Misusing Fire

Fire is unpredictable; it is not what you see on television or on YouTube.  TVF&R urges you to take the following preventative measures.

• Explain the dangers of fire to your child. Remind them that fire is a tool for adults.
• Model fire safe behaviors.
• Keep matches, lighters, gasoline and other accelerants locked up to limit access. Explain to children that gasoline is only used to start vehicle engines.
• Supervise your children when they are around candles, campfires, fireplace fires, barbecues, stoves, etc.
• Keep lighter fluid, gasoline, white gas, and propane locked up out of the reach of children.
• Take fire experimentation and firesetting seriously. If you do nothing, there is a good chance that the behavior will continue and escalate. Property damage, injury, or loss of life could be a result.
• If your child is misusing fire with friends, meet with the friend's parents to discuss the issue.
• If your child is misusing fire, call Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue's Youth Fire Intervention Program at (503) 259-1408.
• If there is a fire, quickly leave the building and call 9-1-1 from a safe telephone such as a neighbor’s house.

Novelty Lighters
Over the years toy-like lighters have been manufactured and sold to the public. Children tend to be attracted to these lighters because they look like toys.  In 2009, Oregon passed a law banning the manufacturing, sale, and distribution of toy-like lighters.  This was a significant step in helping keep our children and community safe and injury-free.  Oregon passes law to ban novelty lighters.