Fire and Emergency New Zealand research report, no. 180, May 2021

Objectives.
The current research aimed to examine (1) the characteristics of rangatahi identified as having set fires in Aotearoa New Zealand, (2) the reach and uptake of the Fire Awareness
and Intervention Programme (FAIP) and, (3) factors which act as facilitators and barriers to engagement with the FAIP.

Method and Analysis.
A mixed-methods approach was used to meet the objectives of the research. To identify the characteristics of rangatahi identified as having set fires and the reach of the FAIP,
quantitative analyses were conducted on data routinely collected by Fire and Emergency New Zealand from the Fire Incident Reporting Management System (FIRMS) and the Fire
Awareness and Intervention Programme (FAIP) database, for the period 1st July 2009 to 30th June 2019. Descriptive statistics were computed to describe the characteristics of rangatahi involved fire incidents and the characteristics of those referred to the FAIP. Comparisons between unintentional and deliberate fire incidents were made using chi-square.
To examine facilitators and barriers to engagement with the FAIP, individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with 16 professionals who work with rangatahi who had played
with or set fires and 26 FAIP practitioners. In addition, an online qualitative survey was completed by 25 whānau whose rangatahi had been referred to the FAIP. Interviews and
focus groups were conducted by telephone or audio-visual link (e.g., Zoom or Microsoft Teams) and were transcribed verbatim. The online qualitative survey was developed using
the survey platform Qualtrics and distributed via community adverts online (e.g., national Facebook advertising) and on community pinboards (e.g., hard copy posters). Qualitative
data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). (From the Executive summary). Record #8414