When TikToker Juan DiMaggio (@juandimaggio5) was seven or eight years old, he started his first fire, which led him down a dark path, and now, he is a recovered arsonist.
So, as a kid, his mom tried to make him play with the other little boys in the neighborhood, even though he didn’t really get along with them.
One day, they were playing in the woods behind the neighborhood, which was right near a college campus. It was the Valencia Community College, West Campus.
They found a liquor bottle and a napkin in the woods. One of the boys shoved the napkin into the bottle, and they started playing hot potato with it. They threw it around until Juan finally dropped it. The bottle rolled down a small incline, igniting dry weeds.
In mere moments, the small flames grew into a 30-foot inferno. Someone in their backyard saw what was going on and shouted at the boys.
They ran to a grocery store to hide out for a little bit. Juan told them that they had to split up and leave the store one by one, go home, and avoid the whole situation.
But one of the boys got too scared and didn’t want to walk home alone, so they all walked back together. Once they entered their neighborhood, an authority figure on a bike came up to them and led them to the fire. They sat on a curb and waited quietly while the adults dealt with the chaos.
The fire was bright and blazing. There were multiple firetrucks around, and people were being asked to leave their homes. A neighbor whose dog that Juan had been dog-sitting for came home and asked what was going on.
In tears, Juan explained that they had started a fire. The neighbor told him that he could never dog-sit for her again, which only intensified the young boy’s distress.
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At the time, his dad had a warrant out for his arrest. The police eventually figured out where Juan lived and knocked on the door. When his mom answered, they told her that her son had started a fire.
He ended up having to attend six months of fire safety training. He learned all about fire prevention, fire extinguishers, safety protocols, and identifying hot doorknobs.
On the very last day, he met burn victims. The most impactful encounter was with a woman who suffered extremely severe burns.
“They were burn victims of every kind of degree, and the last woman I met looked me in the eyes, and she was of the highest degree,” said Juan.
“She looked me in the eyes, and she said, ‘I still feel the burns to this day.’ And I didn’t touch a stove or lighter for a year…”
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
