When mental illness meets fire: the case for compulsory treatment and mental institutions

It’s time Spokane face the hard truth that our current approach to mental health, especially among the chronically homeless and addicted, is not working.

Case in point: in the past few weeks there have been more than twenty fires in Spokane County that have been linked to arson. 16 of those were deliberately set by one individual along the Centennial Trail. The suspect is a homeless woman named Sara Beal, who has a long criminal history and a known pattern of mental illness and a prior arrest for arson.

In 2023, Beal was arrested for setting a car on fire in nearly the same location. In this most recent event, deputies found a box of matches, pillow stuffing, branches, and a can of flammable hairspray in her bag. These can be tools of arson, and be seen as signs of premeditation.

We’ve seen this before. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and now Spokane: individuals clearly suffering from untreated or undertreated mental illness setting fires that could result in massive property damage, injury, or even loss of life.

In Los Angeles last month, a man named Andrew Ocalliham was arrested for setting a fire in a crowded park during the day, caught on video and confronted by bystanders. In 2023, a homeless woman set 8 fires in Spokane and attempted to set a golf course on fire, allegedly because she couldn’t get housing.

These incidents are no longer isolated, they are part of a growing, dangerous pattern.

We are failing the mentally ill

Let’s be honest with ourselves: mentally healthy, well-supported individuals do not wander into public areas with pillow stuffing, matches, and hairspray to allegedly start fires. These are not just criminal acts, but symptoms of a mental health crisis that we’ve allowed to spiral out of control for decades.

Spokane County’s 2025 budget includes $83.5 million for mental health and substance abuse services. And yet, people like Sara Beal remain on the streets, untreated, unstable, and dangerous. Why? Because we’ve abandoned one of the few tools that could truly help individuals like her. Compulsory, long-term psychiatric care in properly funded and modernized mental health institutions.

Since the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. has dismantled its mental hospital system, starting with the passage of the Community Mental Health Act of 1963, which sought to replace institutional care with outpatient clinics. Over the next decades, state hospital beds were reduced by more than 90%, from over 500,000 in 1955 to fewer than 40,000 today. This was done in the name of civil rights and cost-cutting—but it left the severely mentally ill with nowhere to go but the streets or jail.

Meanwhile, programs like “Housing First’ have gained popularity by prioritizing shelter before treatment. But studies, and more importantly results, have proven time and again that Housing First, while successful in improving housing retention, does not improve rates of substance abuse or psychiatric symptoms among the chronically homeless.

It’s not just a housing issue

Housing does not cure schizophrenia. A studio apartment will not stop someone from setting fires if they believe voices are telling them to do it. Weekly case management doesn’t cut it when someone is in a psychotic state or a perpetual addiction spiral. What these individuals need, what our communities need, is a return to facilities that can provide full psychiatric evaluations, involuntary commitment when necessary, and extended treatment for those who pose a risk to themselves or others.

We’ve stigmatized mental hospitals to the point that even suggesting their return is met with disdain. But what’s more humane: leaving someone like Sara Beal to cycle through arrests, jail, homelessness, and multiple attempted arsons, or intervening with the structured care that could stabilize her, protecting both her and society?

It’s only a matter of time before one of these fires becomes catastrophic.

In California, roughly 85% to 90% of wildfires are sparked by human activity. With mental illness and homelessness rising in urban areas, and arson incidents increasing alongside them, it’s not alarmist to say we’re sitting on a ticking time bomb before a mentally ill arsonist causes widespread loss of life.

Compassion over negligence

I’m not arguing against compassion. But compassion without accountability is not compassion, it’s negligence. We are failing people like Sara Beal by refusing to do what’s truly necessary to help them. And we are failing our communities by ignoring the threat they pose when left untreated and unsupervised.

Mental health care in America needs a total overhaul. That starts with acknowledging what’s not working and being willing to revive and reimagine systems, like psychiatric hospitals, that were dismantled for ideological reasons, not practical ones. Let’s modernize them, regulate them, and use them responsibly. But let’s bring them back.

Because if we don’t, the fires will keep coming. And next time, we might not be so lucky.

Dale Whitaker is a husband, father and prior gold industry executive turned whistleblower from Spokane. He was the Republican candidate for Washington Secretary of State in 2024. He is currently working on his exposé titled “The Gold Grift.”