The incidence of fire setting and associated psychopathology of children attending a child psychiatric outpatients.

Fire setting can be a serious form of anti-social behaviour. A study of 79 consecutive out-patient attenders at a Child Guidance Clinic found a rate of 15 (18.9%). The number of fires set ranged from 1 to 20 (mean 9.9). Conduct disorder was found in 8 (53.3%) of the fire setters.