NEW YORK MILLS – The Oneida County Arson Task Force talked about a tough issue at its annual arson seminar on Wednesday.

At the Roselawn Banquet Facility in New York Mills, local fire crews listened as the Rome fire chief presented the case of a fatal fire where a child was killed. This year, they’re highlighting the importance of getting children to understand how dangerous playing with fire can be.

It’s also an exercise meant to train fire crews, investigators and first responders for dealing with some of the most difficult fires.

“When we first come on the scene, we have no idea what led to the fire that we’re going to be investigating and that we are actually on the scene for,” said Rome Fire Chief Ron Brement. “So this case came right around and through the good investigative work of the men and women who do the investigations, they were able to pin back to that there was some juvenile fire play, kind of put the whole … thing together. Like I said, what our outcome is, we’re hoping that we learn something from this and we can educate more people in our community so that this doesn’t happen again.”

The training also gives firefighters the opportunity to qualify for eight hours toward their certification.