Junior High to Reopen After Fire Damaged 20 Classrooms

A hurried cleanup operation Monday at Sun Valley Junior High School will allow the school to reopen for classes today after a weekend fire being investigated as a possible case of arson, officials said.

Twenty classrooms were damaged in the Sunday night fire at the school in the 7300 block of Bakman Avenue in Sun Valley, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported. Damage was estimated to be at least $350,000, spokesman Bob Collis said.

Principal Emilio Garcia said the fire forced the cancellation of classes Monday for about 2,400 students because one-third of the year-round school’s classrooms were lost. But Garcia said 10 rooms were cleaned up for use today.

“We can come up with other classrooms to make up for the rest,” Garcia said.

The fire was reported about 8:30 p.m. Sunday in an English classroom on the first floor of a two-story building. The fire gutted the classroom and the one above it, Garcia said. Smoke damaged 10 other upstairs rooms, and water and smoke damaged the 10 schoolrooms and offices on the bottom floor.

About 45 firefighters extinguished the blaze in 30 minutes, Collis said.

School district police were investigating the cause of the fire. Initial indications are that the fire burned with such intensity in the English classroom that it may have been set with an accelerant such as gasoline, officials said.

“The origin of the fire does appear to be of suspicious nature, but we haven’t concluded that yet,” said Herb Graham, director of police and administrative services for the school district.

Garcia said there have been no threats or other incidents at the school that would indicate a motive for arson.

Garcia said several school district maintenance crews were brought to Sun Valley Junior High from other schools Monday to help with the cleanup.