A juvenile was arrested after an arson investigation at Marcos de Niza High School revealed that he started a fire in the men’s restroom of the 400 building, police reported. The building houses the school’s driver education department and residence of an on-site officer, police reported.
Tempe Police and the fire department responded to the fire alarm that went off at the school and when they arrived the saw that the fire sprinklers and suppression system in the bathroom extinguished the fire, police reported.
The video surveillance of that area was reviewed and a camera outside the bathroom recorded the boy walking out of the restroom prior to smoke being seen, police reported. When he was read his Miranda rights and question he admitted to starting the fire with a lighter he found, saying he didn’t believe it would cause much damage and it would burn itself out, police reported.
Because of the fire classrooms were evacuated and the school was reportedly disrupted, according to the report. Additionally, the security officer was in his residence when the fire started, causing him to be endangered as well, police reported. He was transported to Tempe City Jail, where he was booked and held to see a judge, according to the report.
A fire at a building Thursday afternoon that had been mostly extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system was determined to have been intentionally set. According to Yuma Fire Department spokesman Mike Erfert, shortly after 1:00 p.m., smoke was reported coming from an office in the Mission Valley Plaza, located at 3970 West 24th Street. Once on scene, firefighters found light smoke coming from a vacant office space inside the building.
Erfert said the building’s fire sprinkler system, which had been exposed to the heat, had activated, containing and mostly extinguishing the fire by the time firefighters had arrived. Erfert said firefighters ensured the fire was out and had not spread to adjoining areas of the building.
Sgt. Leanne Worthen, of the Yuma Police Department, said because the fire appeared to have been in intentionally set, detectives were called to scene, and are investigating the fire as an arson. Given this was the fourth fire in as many days, Erfert wanted to stress the importance of fire sprinkler systems, saying they can keep fires from spreading and can also extinguish them.
Fire spreads quickly and can double in size every minute. Even small fires can cause significant damage to property and endanger those nearby. Contrary to many Hollywood portrayals, only sprinkler heads directly exposed to the heat activate, not those in the rest of the room, building, or complex.
On a day when students from her congregation were to learn about slain civil rights activists Harry and Harriette V. Moore, Bishop Jacquelyn Gordon found herself awakened by a phone call informing her that an arsonist set a small fire in her church and scrawled a swastika on a nearby wall.
“To wake up to a call at 3:30 a.m. and find this, it’s mind-blowing,” said Gordon, standing near the blackened ruin of several chairs and furniture in one of the storage compartments at the New Shiloh Christian Center in Melbourne.
The blaze, which left behind $5,000 in damages, set off an alarm about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. Sprinklers were activated, which Gordon credits with keeping the fire from spreading to the nearby electrical room.
The main sanctuary, housed in the same 125,000-square-foot building, was not affected by smoke or fire. Melbourne firefighters quickly contained the fire and discovered evidence of arson.
Melbourne police did not immediately return calls about the case and whether it would be investigated as a possible hate crime. Police report that the vandals also broke into the electrical room, burning through locks and kicking in doors.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
