Garfield Lynns was once a firefighter in Gotham City. He was one of the best firefighters in all of Gotham, until one night when he was rescuing some people from a burning building. He caught on fire, and nearly died. He got out of the incident alive, but with several burns and injuries. While in the hospital, he began to go mad. He became obsessed with fire, believing that everything must burn. When he got out, he made a custom fireproof suit with built-in flamethrowers and became the masked arsonist known as "Firefly". Believing what he was doing was good, he started burning down buildings and wreaking havoc through the city. When Batman first appeared, the two became enemies almost instantly.