School Fire Blamed On Young Arsonists Sacajawea Sustains $4,000 Damage To Roof

A fire that destroyed part of the roof at Sacajawea Middle School early Saturday appears to have been intentionally set, fire officials said.

Fifteen firefighters arrived at the South Hill school shortly after the fire was reported at 3:30 a.m.

They doused two separate fires - one set in a plastic garbage can in the parking lot, the other in a large bed of shrubs at the south end of the school.

The fire in the bushes quickly spread up the side of the building to the roof, said Lt. Michael Zambryski of the Spokane Fire Department. Smoke also filled a classroom and hallway.

Damage is estimated at $4,000, Zambryski said.

“We’re just very lucky,” Sacajawea Principal Herb Rotchford said. “It came close to being a major catastrophe for the school.”

At the east end of the school, investigators discovered tire marks on the lawn in the form of a large figure eight.

That vandalism may be connected to the fires.

“The question is, ‘Do you know where your kids were at 3 a.m.?’ I can just about guarantee (the arsonists) were juveniles,” Zambryski said.

“This is not a ‘Don’t-you-ever-do-this-again’ kind of thing. People do go to jail for this, and parents pay for it.”

Saturday’s fire came just five months after two 13-year-old boys demolished Sacajawea’s offices in the middle of the night. The vandalism spree caused about $20,000 worth of damage.

“Why us again?” was Rotchford’s immediate response when he received a 4:30 a.m. phone call alerting him to the fire, he said.

But the principal noted the two incidents aren’t related.

“There’s really no rhyme or reason,” he said. “These are two separate incidents and two different types of crimes.”

, DataTimes