Arson Awareness Week 2021: Arson during Civil Unrest

The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) recognizes Arson Awareness Week every year in the first full week of May, gathering and sharing information to raise awareness of arson and provide strategies to combat these problems in communities. This year Arson Awareness Week is recognized from May 2 to 8 and focuses on actions for safe response to potential arson-related fires during civil unrest incidents. For this, the USFA notes the dangers involved during a civil unrest incident put everyone’s life in peril. Innocent bystanders, occupants, first responders, and those committing these acts all have a chance to receive debilitating injuries or worse. It adds the aftermath of these intentional acts can create a devastating fiscal loss for communities. The USFA has posted a list of actions for first responders to take for these incidents. It has also uploaded a video of a recent webinar that includes discussions on historic civil unrest responses, mutual aid agreements, risk management, civil unrest response strategies, federal arson statutes and sentencing, and dealing with multiple scenes. Read more at the USFA.