School Damage Put at $125,000 in Arson Blaze

BUENA PARK —  An arson fire at an elementary school late Tuesday night caused $125,000 worth of damage to four classrooms, gutting two of them and causing heat, smoke and water damage to the others, fire officials said.

Someone entered the building by breaking a window of one of the four rooms at the Walter Knott Elementary School, 7300 La Palma Ave., and set fire to paper in a cabinet, said David Myers, a fire investigator for Buena Park.

The blaze was reported at 11:55 p.m., Buena Park Fire Battalion Chief William Jones said, and it took about three dozen firefighters from Buena Park, Anaheim and Orange County half an hour to put out the flames.

No one was hurt in the blaze, Jones said. All four rooms were on the north side of the one-story, stucco building.

A window in another wing also was broken, the fire investigator said, indicating the arsonists also might have been trying to set fire to other parts of the school.

“Something scared them off,” Myers said.

It was not yet known if anything was stolen from the school or how many people were involved. Officials are continuing the investigation.

“I don’t know why anyone would set fire to a school,” Jones said.

The school is closed for the summer. The blaze did not harm a year-round child-care center in another part of the building, said Sally Pollack, spokeswoman for the Centralia School District.

The damage is expected to be covered by insurance.

Fire officials did not know if Tuesday’s arson was related to a fire that was set last month at Fairmont Private Elementary School in Anaheim.

That blaze, reported at 11:19 p.m., caused at least $250,000 damage to the one-story wooden building on Citron Street. One classroom was gutted and other sections of the building damaged. No injuries were reported.

Anaheim fire investigator Michael Feeney said at the time that fire was set to three areas of the Fairmont school by flammable liquid poured outside and inside the rooms. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.