Between 1982 and 1983, a group of eight police officers, firefighters and regular civilians set between 163 and 260 fires in the city of Boston, Massachusetts and nine surrounding towns and cities to protest Proposition 2½, hoping to revert the budget cuts that led to hundreds of police officers and firefighters being laid off.
The wave of fires that the group caused led national media to refer to Boston as the "arson capitol of the world".
[3] Due to the budget cuts, by 1982 the Boston Fire Department (BFD) reduced its firefighters from 2,000 to 1,400 and its companies from 77 to 55.
[8] The fires that week began in a half-mile radius including Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and Roxbury.
"[8] Then chief of the Arson Squad, Paul McCarthy, similarly stated that the fact that the fires were occurring at both occupied and unoccupied buildings in short periods of time indicated that there was more than one perpetrator.
[8] At some time prior to that week, the BFD requested assistance from the ATF to maintain a "special arson watch" and to help local and state fire officials with the investigation, which they agreed to.
[8][9][10] A joint task force was set up between the BFD's Arson Squad, the Boston Police Department (BPD), the ATF and the Suffolk County district attorney's office.
[11] On July 23, WBZ-TV received a note made up of letters cut out of newspapers or magazines saying "I'm Mr. Flare, you know me as the Friday firebug.
[10] Up until that point, the fires had occurred in Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roxbury and South End.
[7] On October 2, a fire was set at the vacant United States Marine Corps barracks on E. Street, South Boston.
The roof collapsed shortly after, leaving no time for anyone to escape from it, causing multiple firefighters to fall into the fire 40 feet below.
The fire burned Gregorio's legs and back and he fractured two vertebrae, while Martin broke several of his ribs and suffered a collapsed lung and internal bleeding.
The pair were rescued after 20 minutes and both were left permanently partially paralyzed, being restricted to light duties.
[13] The first major development in the case occurred in November 21, 1982, when a news crew from WBZ-TV captured a man waving a gun in an attempt to disperse a crowd at a fire at the Gerrity Lumber Company.
WBZ-TV aired the footage, and soon after the ATF identified the man as Robert Groblewski, a former police officer with the BPD who was working as a security guard at the time.
Groblewski stated that he had bought it at a flea market, however upon checking the identification number it was discovered that it had been stolen.
[4][20] The second major development occurred when it was reported that Groblewski had modified his car with parts stolen from a vehicle in 1982.
[23] Damon later plead guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice for being involved in a plot to urge Groblewski to flee to Canada so he couldn't implicate the others.
Earlier that day, he pleaded guilty to six state counts of arson and was sentenced to a term of between 19 and 20 years in Massachusetts Correction Institute - Walpole, now known as MCI Cedar Junction.
[1][12] Then Boston Fire Commissioner Leo Stapleton called into question the group's motives, stating that "We had 257 men laid off.
Bemis apparently wrote a 166 page treatise written on a typewriter, which Miller "drew upon heavily" when writing the book.
Bemis also provided the photograph on the front cover of the book to Miller, which was taken at the American Cellophane and Plastic Films Corporation fire in Jamaica Plain in June, 1982.