Seen At 11: ATF Fights Fire With Fire In Lesson On Arson
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Arson is one of the most unimaginable crimes, and one of the hardest to prosecute because so much of the evidence destroyed.
Investigators themselves now also set fires, in an effort to bring the arsonists to justice.
Kassoum Fofana's physical scars are nothing compared to the emotional wounds he still bears from losing his family to a fire in 2006.
"God gave me a family, and took it back," he said.
Knowing the fire was set intentionally makes the realization that his wife and two young children are gone even harder.
Fofana's Crown Heights apartment building was very deliberately and maliciously set ablaze, according to investigators. The fire that killed his family and injured him was just one of dozens of arson cases to hit the city each year, CBS2's Dave Carlin reported.
"Arson is notoriously one of the hardest crimes to prove, quite literally, the evidence gets burned," Joe Flood, an arson historian, said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives on Monday was teaching prosecutors what arson really looks like. They set fire to mattresses, office chairs, and other household items at the FDNY Training Academy on Randalls Island.
The FDNY and ATF agents both credit the training for increasing arson prosecution rates.
"We go over our investigative technique; evidence gathering," special agent Charles Mullham said. "We'll deal with the legal aspects of testimony in court."
Flood, whose written a book about the history of arson in New York, said it's very often a crime of economics.
"Whether it was the 1970's when fire was a sign of the decay and neglect, or more recently when fire is sometimes a sign of growing economics -- people wanting to get rid of old tenants and old buildings nad build new, more profitable ones," Flood said.
In Fofana's case, authorities said the fire was started out of retribution by a man who was having a dispute with another tenant.
"I tried to save my family," he said.
After a painstaking six-year investigation, prosecutors finally brought charges against the alleged arsonist who set fire to Fofana's building in 2012. The defendant is currently awaiting trial.
