pyromaniac

"The pyromaniac doesn't get money, has no spirit of revenge, has no utility of the fire, but he likes the fire," he says.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

“He’s the pyromaniac, but you gave him kindling,” Chris, the journalist, tells the others.

From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2022

In France, responsibility for all things school falls squarely to the minister of education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, who has been ridiculed as a pompier pyromane—a pyromaniac firefighter, someone who is creating more problems than he solves.

From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2022

There’s something mesmerizing about the spectacle — like watching your family’s resident pyromaniac resuscitate a dying campfire.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 27, 2018

They thought I was a pyromaniac and a liar, and the fact that I myself never seemed to get burned was as good as proof.

From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs

True pyromaniacs — people with an impulse disorder characterized by a compulsive need to set things on fire — do exist, but they are a rare breed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025

More still are convinced that pyromaniacs who want to spark chaos are the behind most blazes.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2023

The ban, combined with an existing prohibition on fireworks in unincorporated areas, is meant to discourage would-be pyromaniacs from accidentally laying waste to their neighbors’ houses or setting off wildfires that blacken hundreds of acres.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 3, 2023

In these years, largely in the service of Big Energy, he and his crew have transformed themselves into so many pyromaniacs.

From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2020

His anecdotes and comments as to pyromaniacs of different kinds were as entertaining and curious as anything recorded by Gaboriau. 

From Memoirs by Charles Godfrey Leland