"Matches" Boyle Charged With Arson or Chicagoist's Hack Diagnosis of a Pyromaniac

By Sam Bakken in News on Feb 11, 2005 11:33PM

Chicago Firefighter Jeffrey "Matches" Boyle was charged with eight felony arson counts yesterday for a string of arsons dating back to 1998. He's charged with setting four fires in Chicago and four in Park Ridge and is a suspect in at least 4 other fires (NBC5 says he's a suspect in 36 other arson cases). The break in the case was surveillance video of a man setting two of the fires set early Monday that fit a description of Boyle. His bond hearing was scheduled for today.

Nobody was hurt in any of the fires, but when we started seeing reports on Boyle our first thought was "Whattadick!" Our second thought was, "But it kind of makes sense!" Especially in light of two of the diagnostic criteria for Pyromania in the DSM-IV (now don't get all up in our grill about diagnosing him, we're not saying he is, it's just interesting):

C. Fascination with, interest in, curiosity about, or attraction to fire and its situational contexts (e.g., paraphernalia, uses, consequences).
D. Pleasure, gratification, or relief when setting fires, or when witnessing or participating in their aftermath

Seems like if tell your high school counselor that you're interested in fire and witnessing or participating in its aftermath, they'll recommend a career in firefighting. The DSM-IV also points out that the fires are not set "...for profit, sabotage, or revenge; to conceal a crime; to make a political statement or to attract attention or recognition." Matches allegedly told officials that "...he was just stupid" and sets the fires when he experiences emotional stress (diagnostic criterion B).

And here's one more thing, Boyle joined the CFD in 1980 and was promoted to lieutenant in 2002 thanks to the controversial "merit promotion" clause. Boyle was pushed to the front of the pack of applicants even though he only scored 78 on a lieutenant's test (worse than 200 other applicants). Critics of the clause say it allows politics and favoritism to affect promotions (his brother is John "Quarters" Boyle a family of plural nicknames!, indicted in the Hired Truck Scandal who some say used and bragged about his clout to get his brother the promotion). The DSM-IV says, "Pyromania occurs much more often in males, especially those with poorer social skills and learning difficulties." The Sun-Times reports that a former president of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 said Matches' peers didn't like him.

This whole thing really has us thinking about firefighters as arsonists. While statistics related to the phenomenon are hard to find, it appears to be a bit of an issue. The U.S. Fire Administration published a report on firefighter arson in January 2003 (the report takes forever to load, here's a very short general summary).