Third WSU fire was arson, Pullman mayor says

Washington State University police are investigating the third suspicious fire to hit the Pullman campus in a week.

Firefighters and police officers responded to McCoy Hall early Tuesday morning to find a fire had triggered the sprinkler system in an isolated section of the building, according to a news release from WSU and the Pullman Fire Department.

Mayor Glenn Johnson, who serves as a spokesman for the Pullman Fire Department, said he is certain the latest fire was arson, noting that there were several points of ignition.

“I mean, it was three intentional sets within McCoy Hall,” Johnson said.

Police said the arsonist smashed a window to get inside the building. It appeared the culprit found the materials used to start the fire after breaking into the building, Johnson said. The sprinkler system doused the fire before it could do significant damage, but the water ruined a number of old computers, chairs, desks and tables. The building houses molecular neuroscience research projects, said Charlie Powell, a spokesman for McCoy Hall. The fire caused no critical damage to current projects.

The Spokane Police Department sent a tracking dog to assist in the investigation, the release said.

The two previous suspicious fires destroyed community buildings at university-owned apartment complexes. The first, at the Nez Perce apartments, occurred Tuesday morning. The second, at the Chief Joseph Apartments, occurred Saturday.

Officials are awaiting analysis at the Washington State Patrol crime lab in Cheney to help them pinpoint the cause of the first two fires, WSU spokesman Darrin Watkins said.

So far, there is no evidence to suggest a link between the three fires, Watkins said, but the tight time frame and close proximity of all three is highly suspicious.

Pullman has dealt with arson before. A number of fires broke out around town in one day several years ago, Johnson recalls.

“Arson fires are some of the hardest ones to ever prove,” he said. “But that has not stopped anyone around here from trying to find this individual.”