A suspicious four-alarm fire gutted a school building in south
Gilroy last night, adding to a rash of possible arsons and leaving
school administrators scrambling to find classrooms for students
who return from winter vacation Monday.
A suspicious four-alarm fire gutted a school building in south Gilroy last night, adding to a rash of possible arsons and leaving school administrators scrambling to find classrooms for students who return from winter vacation Monday.
About 10:15 p.m., firefighters responded to a report of a fire at the Gateway School, which sits between Eighth and Ninth streets on Hanna Street and shares a campus with Glen View Elementary School. By the time firefighters arrived, the fire had fully engulfed a building that houses four classrooms, Fire Investigator Andy Holiday said.
“It’s just devastating,” said Mary-Anne Bosward, director of the Santa Clara County’s Department of Special Education, which oversees the school.
The blaze spewed smoke into the night sky and flames shot out through the roof, firefighters said. Despite the fact that the fire did not spread to nearby administrative buildings, the Gilroy Fire Department called for help from Hollister Fire Department and the California Department of Forestry. Firefighters from these crews worked into a rotation that allowed exhausted and dehydrated firefighters to rest and recuperate.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control about 12:20 a.m., but were working on putting it out until 4 a.m., Holiday said. Yet, even through early Thursday morning, fire investigators were digging through ashes, trying to determine where and how the fire started.
As of 10 a.m. Thursday, Holiday said he did not know how or where the fire started. However, he said there was no sign that it had been started due to the faulty wiring or electrical equipment in the building and police labeled the fire suspicious.
One reason the fire is suspicious is that a second fire broke out in a large trash bin in an alley off Fairview Drive, near Princevalle Street, police said. The bin is just blocks away from the school and the fire started just 15 minutes after the school fire was reported. However, the bin fire was quickly extinguished and no damage was done to nearby structures.
The fires are reminiscent of two arsons and a suspicious fire that lit up south Gilroy during the early hours of Dec. 2. During a five-hour time period, a fire broke out at a paper mill and fires were set on the roof of Gilroy Ford Lincoln Mercury and in a trash bin at Gilroy Sports Park.
These fires came just a week after somebody started a fire using an aerosol can in an unfinished residence in South County Housing’s Cannery development in East Gilroy. Nobody was hurt in any of these fires.
Despite having leads, police have not made any arrests in connection to the rash of arsons.
According to a report put out by the FBI, nearly 68 percent of arsonists are younger than 25 and more than 80 percent of arsonists are male. Typically, arsonists come from families with dysfunctional family structures and are poorly supervised. They are often exposed to harsh, inconsistent punishment and have low self-esteem, poor problem-solving skills and limited social capabilities. Arson provides an outlet for their anxiety and anger.
The Gateway School services emotionally and mentally handicapped children ages 3 to 22, Bosward said. Many of them have autism and experience difficulty adjusting to change.
“They’re used to a routine,” she said. “Change is hard for them. The kids are going to have quite a reaction.”
One upside to the incident is that the fire occurred during winter vacation, giving administrators time to request classroom space from the Gilroy Unified School District by the time students return, Bosward said.
“At least it gives us a few days to plan,” she said.
See more photos of the fire at our an article about how the Gateway School is coping with the fire.
