Arson At Cascade High Investigated -- Fire Destroyed Below-Ground Gym, Office

EVERETT - Firefighters continue to investigate an arson today that caused at least $100,000 damage to the Cascade High School gymnasium.

The Everett Fire Department responded to the blaze at the school at 11:30 Saturday night and spent about four hours on the scene, said Battalion Chief Jim Schwartz. The fire was relatively small but it caused considerable heat and smoke damage and was in a difficult location to reach, he said.

The blaze destroyed a smaller, below-ground gymnasium used for wrestling, gymnastics and other activities. The fire was deliberately set in a storage room just off that gym, Schwartz said.

A second blaze was set on the main level in an office. That fire destroyed the office and damaged a surrounding hallway, locker rooms and bathrooms. Officials have no suspects, Schwartz said.

The Fire Department estimated the damage at $100,000, but that figure could go higher depending on the results of additional inspections, Schwartz said. The fire in the storage room was so hot it destroyed a cement ceiling in the room, which caused a portion of the floor overhead in the main gym to buckle, he said. That damage could add to the total cost of repair.

According to Everett Police Department spokesman Ken Murray, someone broke into the gymnasium through one of the doors near the locker rooms. Besides setting the fires, the intruder apparently turned on several showers. Police were not aware of any damage caused by the running showers, however.

Gary Axtell, Cascade High School's principal, said an air-quality test and a test for structural damage will be conducted today. After those tests, school officials will have a better idea how much damage was caused.

Axtell estimated that cleanup to the main gym, which was not damaged directly, will take about a week. Meanwhile, physical-education classes will be moved to other areas and students will be taught AIDS education, a requirement that the school must provide anyway, Axtell said. The gymnasiums are in a building separate from the rest of the school, so regular classes will not be disrupted, he said.

The athletic directors for the school and the school district are trying to find alternative locations at local middle schools for girls and boys basketball and other main-gym activities, Axtell said. Those programs will need to be relocated for about a week, he said.

Wrestling and other activities in the gym that was destroyed will need a longer-term alternative location. Axtell could not estimate how long it might take to restore the destroyed gym.

Schwartz said the fire was a particularly dirty one because it burned wrestling mats, which created a greasy, messy smoke. "There was just lots of heat and smoke damage," he said.