Fire Lover

Rating:
Summary: captivating story
Review: as a firefighter and one who specializes in fire investigation, this was a captivating read. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Shocking Contrast!
Review: I was blown away by the contrast between Court TV's portrayal of John Orr and Fire Lover. Court TV's program "The System" made Orr seem like a brilliant investigator who went mad.
By contrast, Fire Lover portrayed Orr as a very irresponsible arson investigator totally obcessed by law enforcement.
If Orr wanted so badly to be a cop he should have switched jobs. His huge ego and questionable value to the public good puts him in a league with Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames. Based on my information about these three idiots, I guess the romantic image of a genius gone bad is pure fiction.

Rating:
Summary: A Shocking Contrast!
Review: I was blown away by the contrast between Court TV's portrayal of John Orr and Fire Lover. Court TV's program "The System" made Orr seem like a brilliant investigator who went mad.
By contrast, Fire Lover portrayed Orr as a very irresponsible arson investigator totally obcessed by law enforcement.
If Orr wanted so badly to be a cop he should have switched jobs. His huge ego and questionable value to the public good puts him in a league with Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames. Based on my information about these three idiots, I guess the romantic image of a genius gone bad is pure fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing how an ego can be dangerous!!
Review: John Orr was a firefighter by destiny but not desire. His hidden wish was to someday be a policeman, but that never came to be. So he followed into the firefighting world after spending his boyhood days filled with marveling at firefighters rushing to extinguish blazes in life risking manuevers. Those impressions led him to become a firefighter with the Glendale Fire Department when he became an adult.

While there, he quickly climbed the ranks until he reached fire captain. Along the way he gained the reputation of being Southern Cal's most famous and respected arson investigator as well as an author of firefighting articles which lead to a fact-based book of his own. A rather storybook tale of a perfect life.

As Orr's ego grew, he needed more. The oportunity arose when one arson continuously escape his grasps. The arsonist, using the same simple yet devastating device, was basically terrorizing the area and his frolicing left four innocent people dead as well as destroying millions of dollars in property damage as well as the damage to nature itself. As is often the case, this arsonist got comfortable and made a mistake after years of devastation. One precious clue was left behind and fell into the wrong hands. This clue would reveal the true identity of the cruel arsonist and the horrid facts behind his hobby.

Orr had created the fires to create fame for himself. His ego wanted, needed the limelight and he needed a nemisis uncatchable that would keep him in the public's eye. Sadly, his own desire for the ultimate reward was of little value in a firefighter world and beyond his grasp. Probably acknowledging this, he created his own fame through terror. John Orr was a firefighter that did not belong in that world.

The author does an excellent job on this story and tells it like it is. The court room part is a bit longwinded and boring, but reality isn't always excitement, as John Orr himself can tell you.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing how an ego can be dangerous!!
Review: John Orr was a firefighter by destiny but not desire. His hidden wish was to someday be a policeman, but that never came to be. So he followed into the firefighting world after spending his boyhood days filled with marveling at firefighters rushing to extinguish blazes in life risking manuevers. Those impressions led him to become a firefighter with the Glendale Fire Department when he became an adult.

While there, he quickly climbed the ranks until he reached fire captain. Along the way he gained the reputation of being Southern Cal's most famous and respected arson investigator as well as an author of firefighting articles which lead to a fact-based book of his own. A rather storybook tale of a perfect life.

As Orr's ego grew, he needed more. The oportunity arose when one arson continuously escape his grasps. The arsonist, using the same simple yet devastating device, was basically terrorizing the area and his frolicing left four innocent people dead as well as destroying millions of dollars in property damage as well as the damage to nature itself. As is often the case, this arsonist got comfortable and made a mistake after years of devastation. One precious clue was left behind and fell into the wrong hands. This clue would reveal the true identity of the cruel arsonist and the horrid facts behind his hobby.

Orr had created the fires to create fame for himself. His ego wanted, needed the limelight and he needed a nemisis uncatchable that would keep him in the public's eye. Sadly, his own desire for the ultimate reward was of little value in a firefighter world and beyond his grasp. Probably acknowledging this, he created his own fame through terror. John Orr was a firefighter that did not belong in that world.

The author does an excellent job on this story and tells it like it is. The court room part is a bit longwinded and boring, but reality isn't always excitement, as John Orr himself can tell you.

Rating:
Summary: serial arsonist
Review: This is right up there with THE ONION FIELD as a Wambaugh non-fiction book. Very interesting reading about a firefighter who was also a serial arsonist. Got a little long in the court room section of the book but other than that I found it very compeling. Wambaugh is always a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Non-fiction. Very well written story of a fire-bug
Review: This is the story of perhaps the most prolific fire-bug in the history of the United States, John Leonard Orr, who is now serving a life sentence without possibility of parole, in the U.S. Penitentiary at Lompoc, California, where in due time he will be transferred to the California State system.

The story leads the reader through Orr's life as a reject from LA Law Enforcement, a failed LA Fire Dept. academy starter, to the acceptance by Glendale Fire Dept., a much lower-paid position, where over a period of years he became a Captain/Arson Investigator.

As an avocation, the Fire Captain, sworn to protect the public from fires, was starting them by the hundreds, and then grabbing attention by solving "How" they were started. He seemed to have an intuitive grasp of where to find the points of origin, and the incendiary devices.

Orr was a copy "wannabe," who tried constantly to impress the police with his acuity and bravery, effecting arrests (although it was not his job). He carried guns in the shower. But he was all a sham.

Eventually, Orr was caught, of course, and tried, and convicted. The evidence against him was as damning as in the O.J. Simpson case, but there was no race card to throw in, and no jury nullification factor.

He caused the deaths of a least four, and perhaps five people, in one fire at Ole's Dept. store, and he wrote a supposedly fiction book, which reads like a very poorly written diary, and the contents of which were damning and led to his conviction.

Orr thought he was smater than anyone else, but his own big mouth and braggadocio was his ulitimate dowlfall.

I ordered this book and Orr's own "masterpiece", Points of Origin, after watching a presentation by Court TV. He will not profit from his writing, as it goes to restitution, but even if he did, if the quality of his writing talent has anything to do with it, he'll die penniless.

Joseph Wambaugh, on the other hand, is a wonderful craftsman, also from the LA Police Dept., where he was a detective sergeant. In addition to this book, he wrote The Onion Field, The Blooding, and The Choirboys.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, Retired
Oregon Dept. of Corrections


Rating:
Summary: Killer Firefighter
Review: This was one of the most captivating books I have read in a long time. As a professional Fire Investigator I was appalled one of our brothers could be responsible but fascinated by the content. A must read for every Fire Investigator

Rating:
Summary: Starts out slowly, but picks up steam
Review: Well-written tome about an egomaniac with no respect for women, John Leonard Orr.

Disappointed in his quest to be a police officer (someone apparently never told Mr. Orr that life doesn't turn out the way we want it to), he became a cop wanna-be while on the fire department.

When he decided to show the police how much smarter he was than they were, he started setting fires, one of which cost the lives of four people including a toddler.

I cannot believe that Orr's own book, Points of Origin, a blueprint of his crimes which helped to convict him, found a publisher. Thank God he and his family cannot profit from it.

To use his own words, he was a stupid person doing what a stupid person does!