Arson destroys portable classroom

Classes were under way as usual today at Finn Hill Junior High School as a portable classroom smoldered outside and fire investigators tried to find out more about the arson that destroyed the building.

"We're doing business as normal," said Victor Scarpelli, principal. The fire was reported about 4:30 a.m. at the school north of downtown Kirkland at 8040 N.E. 132nd St.

Firefighters arrived within about five minutes and took 25 minutes to extinguish the blaze, Battalion Chief Mike Dettmer said.

While that fire was being battled, a second fire was reported in a trash bin at the nearby Thoreau Elementary School, but that fire did no damage and was quickly put out, Dettmer said.

The Finn Hill fire was determined to be arson, and arson-reward signs were posted on the building by mid-morning, even as fire crews continued to pump water into the still-smoking structure.

The exact cause and amount of damage remained to be determined, Dettmer said.

The portable building was used by the 140-student Environmental and Adventure School, which is housed at the Finn Hill campus, said Cindy Duenas, principal of the environmental school.

Duenas said the school focuses on making students stewards of the environment and emphasizes science and math classes.

The portable was one classroom used for environmental classes, she said, with most of the school's classes held in an adjacent brick building that wasn't damaged. The building that was destroyed included computers, textbooks, desks, chairs and lab tables, Duenas said.

Among the work being done in the portable was a genetics experiment that involved breeding fruit flies, Duenas said. All that work was lost.

Nine fire units responded to the Finn Hill fire, said Robin Paster, public-information officer for the Kirkland Fire Department. The building's wood walls remained intact, but the roof collapsed into the structure and fire damage destroyed the interior and a crawl space. The building was one of two, side-by-side, portables used as classrooms, with the entryways reached by ramps. The second portable wasn't damaged.

Finn Hill has about 500 students.

"Everybody just stepped up to the plate and behaved really well," Duenas said.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com