Irvine : Arson Suspected in Fires on UC Irvine Campus
Arson is suspected in two small fires that broke out on the UC Irvine campus early Thursday morning, UCI officials reported. The blazes were quickly extinguished and caused little damage.
Colleen Bentley-Adler, a spokeswoman for the university, said the first fire broke out about 2:45 a.m. Thursday on the first floor of the university’s Administration Building. She said that boxes of financial-aid blank forms were stacked beside a wall on the building’s first floor and that someone apparently set fire to the boxes.
The Orange County Fire Department doused the blaze before it could spread from the stacked boxes, fire officials said. John Hamilton, a spokesman for the County Fire Department, said damage to a wall and floor where the boxes were situated was estimated at $1,000.
Bentley-Adler said police began a search around campus after the first fire was discovered to see if any other blazes had been set. A second small fire was found about 3:15 p.m. in a trash-storage area by a loading dock at the UCI Social Science Laboratory, Bentley-Adler said. This fire also was quickly extinguished and caused no damage, she said.
Bentley-Adler said the university has no idea why a person or persons ignited the two fires. “We have no leads and no suspects,” she said.
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