A new book tells the inside story of an infamous arson ring that was responsible for setting hundreds of fires in the city during the early 1980s.

“Burn Boston Burn,’’ released in August, was written by Wayne M. Miller, a retired special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who worked on the case for three years.

Between 1982 and 1984, the arsonists torched 264 buildings, and Boston became known as the “arson capital of the nation,’’ according to Miller, who worked on an Arson Task Force Group that assisted state and Boston fire department investigators.

Meanwhile, Miller and other investigators wondered when — and how — the arsonists would ever be caught.

“We were very frustrated,’’ Miller said in a recent telephone interview.

Miller said the arson ring — which included police officers and a Boston firefighter — began as a protest against Proposition 2 1/2, a statute that limited the amount of revenue that cities and towns across Massachusetts could raise through property taxes, and that resulted in cuts to many public safety agencies.

After awhile, setting buildings ablaze almost became a form of nightly entertainment for the arsonists, according to Miller.

“It became such a big game for them,’’ Miller said. “It became an absolute game of cat and mouse. They were having fun.’’

At one point, one of the arsonists sent an anonymous letter to a local television station in which he referred to himself as “Mr. Flare.’’ The handmade note was made out of letters of different fonts and sizes that had been cut out from other publications.

“I’m Mr. Flare. You know me as the Friday firebug,’’ the letter stated. “I will continue till all deactivated police and fire equipment is brought back.’’

Miller said the gang setting buildings ablaze viewed themselves as a “twisted modern-day version of Robin Hood and his gang of merry men’’ who were supporting a noble cause.

“If enough fires were set, then all of the laid-off firefighters would be rehired and the closed firehouses would all be reopened,’’ Miller writes in his book. “And they imagined that their actions would teach people a valuable lesson: that firefighters and police were essential assets of the community, not pawns to be sacrificed on a political game board.’’

But in reality, Miller said the arsonists were nothing more than “domestic political terrorists’’ who hurt innocent people and caused millions of dollars in property damage.

One particularly devastating fire occurred on Oct. 2, 1982, when a fire at a vacant military building on E Street in South Boston left 22 firefighters injured.

To start the fires, the arsonists used what they called “La Bomba,’’ which consisted of a ziplock plastic bag filled with Coleman lantern fuel that was placed inside a paper bag stuffed with tissue. They would then light a cigarette that was threaded through a matchbook, which acted as a fuse, and put that inside the bag, and voila — once the cigarette burned down to the matches, the flames would melt the plastic and release the fuel.

Miller said by late 1982, the arsonists started to place the incendiary device inside discarded tires which could be found in many vacant lots.

Miller said the big break in the case came when WBZ-TV cameraman Nat Whittemore filmed then-Boston police officer Robert Groblewski waving his gun around at the scene of a lumberyard fire on Nov. 21, 1982. Authorities were able to identify Groblewski and other arsonists on the tape. When Miller and another investigator interviewed Groblewski at his home, Miller said they found a city-owned Gamewell fire alarm box in his apartment. That was another clue.

Whittemore’s tape ultimately led to the downfall of the arson conspiracy, Miller said. Gregg Bemis, the former Boston Housing Authority police officer who called himself “Mr. Flare,’’ served his sentence and actually took the photo that appears on the cover of “Burn Boston Burn.’’ The image shows a fire that was set at the American Cellophane and Plastic Films Corp. building in Jamaica Plain in June 1982.

“Gregg never once was angry at us for arresting him,’’ said Miller. “He used to send us Christmas cards.’’

Miller said a 166-page single-spaced typewritten treatise written by Bemis was a tremendous resource that he drew upon while writing “Burn Boston Burn.’’

Miller closes the book with an epilogue that talks about the fate of the main people featured in the book (Bemis still resides in Massachusetts, as does Groblewski, who pleaded guilty, did his time, and has since changed his name. Convicted arsonist Donald Stackpole was released from prison and later died in 2012.). Miller also strikes an optimistic tone, noting that in today’s world, it’s much harder to get away with what they did in the early 1980s.

“Cell phones and vehicles can be too easily tracked today to allow such persistent offenders to commit so many arsons for so long,’’ he writes.

For more information about Miller’s book, visit his website at www.burnbostonburn.com. Miller said 50 percent of all profits from the book will go toward improving fire investigation and helping burn victims.

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.