Police are investigating the cause of a small fire that caused Concord High School to be evacuated Monday afternoon, school officials said.
The fire was in a trash can located in a men’s bathroom in the west wing basement and burned long enough to destroy a paper towel dispenser. CHS principal Tom Sica said a staff member passing by put out the fire with an extinguisher, but staff still pulled the fire alarm to be safe.
Concord Fire and Rescue responded to the school about 12:40 p.m. to reports of a fire in a basement bathroom in the west building. Concord fire Chief Dan Andrus said the building was evacuated per protocol, but that within five minutes, the situation was under control.
Sica said a student approached him outside and identified the person who started the fire. Sica said the administration was able to place the student at the scene due to new cameras installed in the building’s hallways as part of a security grant the district received this year.
Police are speaking to the student and his parents, but Sica said he was unsure if an arrest was made. He said the student is a minor.
The incident is one of several “blatant acts of vandalism” that have occurred at CHS since the school year started, Sica said. Some of those acts include broken toilet seats; soap dispensers and a mirror removed; and bathroom stall dividers “banged up,” Sica said. The damage to the school is now more than $9,000.
It’s too early to say whether the incidents are connected, Sica said.
“It’s on the forefront of our minds,” he said.
“The vast majority of our kids do a great job following through on the rules,” he added. “This is not representative of the whole.”
Signs cautioning of wet floors remained in the hallway outside the bathroom Monday after school. The bathroom still smelled of smoke, and fans were running in the hallway.
No one was hurt, but some classes had to be canceled due to the incident.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)