When Robert and Heather Wood realized that their two young sons had started a fire in the laundry room of their apartment complex, they did what many parents would do – punished them.

Then they did what officials say many parents don't – voluntarily got their 10- and 12-year-old boys some help.

That help was at Dallas Fire-Rescue's Juvenile Firesetter Intervention Program, where the youngsters learned just how dangerous their actions could have been, even though the fire they set didn't injure anyone.

"It's just the best program," Heather Wood said. "It was necessary for us to take that step so the boys knew how much damage they could have caused. You can't ever overeducate your kids about anything."

And educating youngsters about the dangers of fire is difficult, fire officials say, in large part because the attraction to fire is normal for them. And that attraction can be reinforced by something as seemingly benign as the applause and approving smiles that even babies receive when they blow out the candles on a birthday cake.

"All kids are subject to playing with fire because there is a natural curiosity about it, unless there's an intervention done," said Dallas Fire-Rescue Lt. Melanie Forbes-Scott, who heads the department's program. "Fire is cheap. It gives them power and it's accessible."

Several North Texas fire departments have some type of juvenile fire setter program, but the one at Dallas Fire-Rescue, which celebrated its 28th anniversary in August, attracts calls from fire officials across the area looking for help, Forbes-Scott said.

The program is strictly voluntary, except for the few cases where a judge has ordered a child to participate.

Out of more than six dozen referrals to the Dallas program since January, Forbes-Scott says, the program has worked with about 40 youngsters.

She said that many parents decline to have their children go through the program out of embarrassment. Others back out when they learn that the first step is completion of a detailed fire risk evaluation form that often reveals underlying family trauma at the root of the child's fire setting.

"Sometimes we uncover things like sexual abuse," she said. "Some kids express suicidal thoughts or wanting to hurt others, so we have to get them help right away."

Both of the Wood boys say there was nothing traumatic that caused them to start the laundry-room fire a couple of months ago using a lighter, pencils and dryer sheets.

"It was just curiosity, I think," 12-year-old Chase said. "I wanted to see what it would do. It was my idea."

Heather Wood and her husband quickly made the boys accept responsibility. She made them tell the apartment managers what they had done and clean up the damage. Then she took them to a fire station. They eventually decided to go through the program.

"We look at it as good parenting," said Heather Wood. "It'd be bad parenting if you did nothing."

Chase and his younger brother, Shawn, went through about five sessions in which they had individual discussions with a program specialist, watched videos about how quickly a small fire could spread and developed a fire evacuation plan for the family.

"I learned not to do that stuff because it's bad," said Shawn, 10. "I could hurt somebody."

Forbes-Scott said getting youngsters who start fires to understand the potential for harm is usually the best tool in getting them to stop.

"When we have a fire setter, we try to get them before they become criminals," she said.

Debbie Taylor, deputy fire marshal at the Pasadena Fire Department and fire marshals office, has run the juvenile fire setter program there for nearly 20 years.

"Kids who experiment with fire, they feel like they're out of control in so many areas," she said. "When they set a fire ... it's something wild that they have control over. Even if it lasts for just a few moments, it gives them power."

Both Taylor and Forbes-Scott said the most serious type of juvenile fire setter, a youth who starts blazes with the intent of destroying property or harming others, is rare. It's one reason they avoid using the term "arsonist" when they talk about youngsters in their programs.

"An arsonist is a criminal," Forbes-Scott said. "They plan to destroy property or hurt somebody. A lot of these kids don't intend to destroy property or hurt anybody."

And sometimes fire setters start trouble in a misguided effort to avoid more problems.

Taylor said she had a case recently in which a teenage boy set fire to a neighbor's home after the boy was sexually assaulted by other teens on his high school football team, then taunted at school while his tormenters went unpunished.

Taylor asked the boy why he set the fire and he told her that he just didn't want to have to return to school. She pointed out to him that the school year was about to end.

"I know, but I'll have to go back next year," the boy told her. "So I knew I had to do something big to keep me from having to go back."

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Delinquency and Prevention divides juvenile fire setters into three groups:

•Curiosity fire setters: Children under age 8 who generally start fires simply out of curiosity.

•Intentional fire setters: Children between 8 and 12 who are sometimes motivated by curiosity but are more often propelled by underlying psychosocial conflict.

•Crisis fire setters: Adolescents between 13 and 18 who usually have a long history of undetected fire play and fire-setting behavior and are often motivated by psychosocial or intentional criminal behavior.