the.com/arsonist
someone who turned playing with matches into a felony résumé.
means A person who deliberately sets fire to property, usually as a crime.
from From 'arson,' which came into English through Anglo-French and Old French 'arson,' meaning the act of burning, ultimately from Latin 'ardere,' to burn (the same root that smolders in 'ardent' and 'ardor'). The '-ist' suffix — the dependable Greek-via-Latin tag that turns an act into a practitioner — was tacked on later, so the word literally labels someone whose specialty is burning.
- motive
- Most set fires for revenge, not money or thrill
- origin word
- From Latin ardere, meaning to burn
- firefighter overlap
- Some arsonists are firefighters craving the rescue
- detection
- Investigators read burn patterns like a confession
- pyromania
- Actual fire-obsession disorder is shockingly rare
john leonard orr — california fire captain who set 2,000+ fires between 1984-1991, causing $43 million in damages
peter kessler — german serial arsonist convicted of 139 fires in berlin in the 1990s
louis fanene ah toon — australian arsonist who set fires across melbourne in 2006-2010, burning 500+ properties