2 Boys Charged in $450,000 Fire at High School

Two teen-age boys were charged Monday with felony arson and threatening a witness in connection with a fire that caused an estimated $450,000 in damage at Agoura Hills High School last month, authorities said.

The district attorney will seek to have the youths, ages 16 and 17, tried as adults, spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. An arraignment date in Sylmar Juvenile Court has not been set for the youths, who were arrested last month and released to their parents’ custody, officials said.

The fire was apparently set in an attempt to destroy the records of one of the suspects to prevent him from being transferred to a continuation school, prosecutor William Ryder said. The youths threatened to shoot a third boy, who had refused to participate, if he or “anyone tells the cops,” Ryder said.

The suspects’ names are withheld because they are juveniles. The 16-year-old lives in Thousand Oaks and the 17-year-old in Westlake Village, officials said.