MISSION VIEJO : Reward Offered for Leads in School Fire

Saddleback Valley Unified School District officials are offering a $1,000 reward to anyone with information on an arson fire that devastated parts of Del Lago Elementary School last week.

School officials said the fire last Thursday night gutted two classrooms and caused heavy smoke and water damage to four others, causing at least $500,000 in damage to the structure of the school alone.

The damage estimate does not count destroyed and damaged books, school materials, overhead projectors, tape recorders and years worth of lesson plans created by the teachers whose classrooms were burned, school Principal Carole McClelland-Wong said Wednesday.

“The list goes on and on,” she said. “It’s very difficult for these teachers who were involved.”

On Wednesday, several teachers were still sorting through the rubble, trying to save what they could from the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. Although boxes full of books, files and other educational materials were saved, almost everything was covered with a fine layer of soot.

“It’s a nightmare,” said sixth-grade teacher Pat Downey, whose classroom of 12 years sustained heavy smoke and water damage. “You just have to start over again.”

The only bright spot for the teachers was that the computers normally used in the classrooms were being stored elsewhere for the summer, Downey said. The nearby school library was also undamaged.

This week, McClelland-Wong sent flyers home to parents of the 700 children who attend the school, asking for help in catching the arsonist. Anyone who has information that leads to an arrest and conviction will receive a $1,000 reward.

Officials say someone broke through a window and set several small fires in one of the classrooms sometime before 11 p.m. last Thursday. It took 30 firefighters from the Orange County Fire Department about 40 minutes to contain the fire. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The school, at 27181 Entidad, will reopen as usual this fall, although portable classrooms will be needed until the classrooms are repaired, McClelland-Wong said.

Anyone with information about fire can call the County Fire Department at (714) 744-0400 or the district superintendent’s office at (714) 455-7200.