Anaheim school damaged in blaze

Psychologists were on hand Wednesday in the Anaheim City School District to counsel children traumatized by an arsonist’s early morning torching of their school.

Although Palm Lane Elementary had been closed for renovations since June, about 25% of its 828 students -- all of them bused to a nearby campus as the work proceeds -- live in the immediate vicinity of the burned school.

“They woke up seeing flames,” said Suzi Brown, a district spokeswoman. “It was quite an emotional day for many of those students; they are drawing pictures of their school on fire.”

The 4 a.m. blaze caused about $900,000 worth of damage to the campus in the 1600 block of West Palm Lane, destroying six classrooms and seriously damaging four more. The school kitchen was also damaged, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

“When firefighters got on the scene, the classrooms were fully engulfed with flames as high as 75 feet,” said Maria Sabol, a spokeswoman for the Anaheim Fire Department.

Investigators have determined that the fire was deliberately set in one of the classrooms, though they have no suspects or leads.

“There are lots of apartments out there,” Sabol said. “We feel that maybe someone in the community saw something and can help us out.”

The campus had previously been covered with graffiti and targeted by vandals, she said.

Work on the school, begun in September, had been expected to be completed by early next year. Now, Brown said, it is likely to be delayed at least several months.

“It’s obviously very disappointing,” she said, “not just for administrators but for the children who were looking forward to returning to their school.”

About 70 firefighters from the Anaheim and Garden Grove fire departments responded to the three-alarm blaze, which took about 30 minutes to put out.

Anyone with information on who might have started the fire is asked to call the Anaheim department’s arson-tip hotline at (714) 765-5086.

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david.haldane@latimes.com

molly.hennessy-fiske @latimes.com