IF practice makes perfect, then firebugs in Winnipeg's North End have a lot of opportunities to hone their skills.
As police continue to catch and caution a large number of kids under 12 for their roles in setting fires in Winnipeg's North End that have caused thousands of dollars in damage, there appears to be ample opportunity for torching communal garbage cans.
So far this year, police have cautioned 24 kids too young to be formally charged for setting fires, many of them involving city-owned garbage bins.
Many times, the kids have set fire to more than one.
On a tour of randomly selected back lanes Thursday, the Free Press found that more than half of such bins over a five-block span were filled to bursting with potentially flammable refuse.
In one case, a massive pile of old kindling was left directly behind one of the bins.
Of the seven such communal bins in the back lane of Selkirk Avenue and Pritchard Avenue between Salter Street and Powers Street, every bin was overflowing or surrounded by materials that young arsonists could potentially target.
Nearly all of the bins appear to have been damaged by fire at some point.
On Wednesday, police said they had cautioned five youths -- one of them only five years old -- in connection with a recent series of potentially deadly fires in the North End.
In one case, three boys, aged six, seven and nine, were deemed responsible by police for setting fire to a vacant home on Alfred Avenue causing $170,000 in damages. In a separate incident Friday, a five-year-old watched as a seven-year-old set fire to an AutoBin, resulting in $3,500 in damages.
Investigators said the two younger boys involved in the Alfred Avenue incident returned to the scene 18 hours later to try to set the place on fire again.
Dan McInnis, the city's manager of solid waste services, said the city began placing AutoBins in select areas of the city in the early 1990s. Today, there are 5,300 of them, mainly within central areas of Winnipeg.
The collection of refuse from the bins is not on a set schedule like recycling, McInnis said.
"We have a program that we pick up the AutoBins as needed," he said.
McInnis initially said there are areas of the city that produce more AutoBin garbage than others, but refused to identify them for fear of singling out homeowners.
Alex Forrest, a senior firefighter and president of the United Firefighters of Winnipeg, said Thursday firefighters working out of the No. 6 station at Redwood Avenue and McGregor Street spend as much as half of their time rushing around the North End extinguishing garbage fires that can quickly spread.
"It's almost like putting a finger in the dike," Forrest said.
The impact of constantly responding to these fires places great stress on firefighters and city resources, Forrest said. They treat all fires as serious and potentially deadly and rush to them with lights and sirens blazing.
Forrest said without more money and effort put into fire prevention and safety education for youth, he's worried the problem will only get worse as kids get older and escalate their fire-setting behaviour to larger structures, or pass on their skills to younger siblings.
"It's only going to perpetuate and get worse," he said.
"If we can stop that behaviour, we might be able to stop them going down the road to a career in crime."
All five of the youths recently cautioned were referred to Youth Firestop, an intervention program that attempts to curb fire-setting behaviour and reduce property damage and the possibility of kids injuring themselves. The majority of kids in the program are between eight and 12 years old.
Forrest said Youth Firestop has proven effective in quelling firebug tendencies, but the number of referrals is so high the two public education officers are often stretched thin.
The program had 279 youths referred to it last year, a record number. So far in 2008, there are 112 closed or pending files.
james.turner@freepress.mb.ca
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