The Finn Hill area suffered a series of arsons in late January and early February, but they aren't necessarily connected, according to Kirkland Fire Department investigators.
The first arson took place on January 31, when a toddler slide at Big Finn playground was torched and reduced to a melted heap of blackened plastic. It was the second arson of equipment at the playground in the past year, said Doug Williams, a spokesman for the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks. It will cost between $4,000 and $5,000 to replace the burned equipment, and there are no suspects in the case, he said.
A newspaper-recycling bin at Thoreau Elementary School on Northeast 138th Street was also set on fire around 5:30 in the morning Feb. 8, but a major arson took place less that an hour earlier at nearby Finn Hill Junior High School on Northeast 132nd Street.
In that one, a portable science-and-math classroom for the Environmental and Adventure School was set on fire and completely gutted, said Lake Washington School District spokeswoman Kathryn Reith. The loss of the classroom and its contents is estimated to be around $100,000, she said.
The portable - which served around 130 students from all over the school district - will cost between $40,000 and $50,000 to replace, according to Reith. "That was a large classroom," she said, explaining that the portable contained both desks and lab tables. It will also cost around $30,000 to move and install the replacement portable, Reith added.
Equipment lost included outdoor gear stored under the classroom. "That was only some coolers, so the value was pretty minimal," she said. Also lost was personal property belonging to teacher Marcus Rose, along with an experiment involving the breeding of fruit flies. "That has to be done over again," Reith said of the experiment.
The loss will be covered by insurance, and new equipment has already been ordered. "New stuff was ordered pretty darn quickly," she said. Finding the money for the replacement equipment won't be a problem. "We're a very big (school) district, so the cash flow allows for things like that, I believe," Reith said.
But quickly replacing the portable might be a problem, even though the school district has one or two in its inventory, she said. "Part of the issue is finding one big enough." The district might have to buy a new one, Reith conceded.
But the district also faces another hurdle: getting a permit to replace the burned classroom, said Reith, who described the effort as "the slowest portion of the process." In the meantime, students from the Choice School program are meeting in classrooms in the junior high school, she said.
Arson is rare in the city and often involves Dumpsters on the Fourth of July, "that kind of thing," said Robin Paster, a spokeswoman for the Kirkland Fire and Building Department. "This is unusual," she said of the school arsons.
The Fire Department has determined the cause of the school arsons, according to Lawrence Canary, assistant fire chief and supervisor for the fire-investigation unit. But he wouldn't release that information, saying the investigation might be compromised if anyone besides the arsonist or arsonists and fire-department investigators knew the details.
However, Canary stressed, there is no clear connection between the recycling bin and classroom arsons, and there is no indication the playground-equipment fire is linked to the ones at the schools.
Canary sounded hopeful that there would be a break in the classroom case. "We have some very good leads," he said. But Canary would neither confirm nor deny if the leads involve any witnesses.
Assuming there is an arrest or arrests for the arson, the Fire Department wants a say in what happens next. "We will make recommendations to the fullest extent that the law allows us to," he said. Still, Canary added, it will be up to the King County Prosecutors Office to make the call on the charge.
Dan Donohoe, a spokesman from the Prosecutors Office, refused to speculate on a charge. "A lot of things can affect it," he said. That includes whether the suspect has any prior convictions and the person's age if a juvenile is involved, Donohoe said.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or (206)461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
