4 Youths to Be Charged With Arson at School : Audio-Visual Room Is Gutted in Fire That Was Intentionally Set

Four boys between the ages of 9 and 11 were taken into custody on suspicion of setting a fire that gutted a Garden Grove elementary school reading and audio-visual room Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Garden Grove police said the youths may be connected with other smaller fires that have been set around the grounds of Morningside Elementary School over the last several days. Although all four were from Garden Grove, none attended the school, causing investigators to tentatively rule out a grudge against a teacher as a possible motive, Lt. Chuck Gibbs said.

“The classroom that burned was in a building detached from the main school building and contained very expensive audio-visual equipment,” Gibbs said. “It was a reading room. Apparently there was special equipment in there.

‘Just a Prank to Tune of $65,000’

“There was some indication that over the last several days there have been some small fires started around the school, not necessarily that classroom but little blazes that were fairly innocuous,” Gibbs said. “And apparently some of these kids were involved in the previous incidents. These kids don’t even go to this school so there’s no indication that any of them had a grudge on a teacher or anything. Just a prank to the tune of $65,000, and it will probably go higher than that.”

It took 15 firefighters about five minutes to extinguish the blaze, which began in the detached, single-classroom building about 1:40 p.m. Firemen had to punch a hole in the roof of the locked building to put out the flames, but managed to prevent massive structural damage, Garden Grove Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Vince Bonacker said.

However, the flames destroyed audio-visual equipment, as well as all the furniture and books and the rest of the contents of the room, officials said. Gibbs stressed that “under California law, parents are financially liable for any damage to school property by their children.”

The fire began inside, near a door of the reading room, which Bonacker said the youthful suspects may have entered through a broken window. Bonacker said paper and other “combustibles” near a teacher’s desk were set on fire, and that the suspects either sparked the flames from inside or reached through the window. “We have no reason to believe any (flammable liquid) was used, but we’re still investigating,” he said.

Lt. Gibbs said matches were used to start the blaze.

Bonacker said there had been no threat of the fire spreading to other structures on the campus in the 10500 block of Morningside Drive.

Passers-by told investigators they spotted a group of young boys running from the school grounds shortly after the fire started. Nobody was working on campus at the time of the fire.

Based on information from witnesses, Lt. Gibbs said, police investigators located the four youthful suspects, who all live near the school, he said.

The four, whose names were withheld because of their age, were taken into custody at their homes without incident on suspicion of arson and burglary, he said.

Although it appeared nothing was taken from the room, Gibbs said that “illegal entry to a building with intent to commit a felony” is punishable as burglary in California.

The four boys were released to their parents’ custody Sunday night but were scheduled to appear in Juvenile Court this week in connection with the incident, Gibbs said.

Bonacker said Sunday that he couldn’t recall any other fires at Morningside Elementary School, but he added that arson and other acts of vandalism are an on-going problem.

“We have sporadic, smaller fires and vandalism in our schools, like all communities,” he said, “But we haven’t had (a school fire in Garden Grove) for some time.”

Times staff writer Nancy Wride contributed to this article.