By Michelle Hunter
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
Fire investigators have determined that a weekend fire that destroyed a portable building at Crescent City Christian School in Metairie was arson.
No one was injured in the blaze, which started early Sunday in a detached storage facility at the school, 4818 Utica St., according to George Rigamer, spokesman for the East Bank Consolidated Fire Department.
The fire did not spread to main buildings on the school’s campus. But the flames consumed the portable facility, which was used to store textbooks, according to Jason Rigsby, Crescent City’s office manager.
School officials weren’t sure how many books were destroyed. But Rigamer estimated about $2,000 in damage to the contents of the building and about $10,000 in damage to the structure.
The fire was reported to authorities at 3:02 a.m. and firefighters had the blaze under control by 3:36 a.m., Rigamer said.
Someone broke into the locked building and set the fire in the rear of the building using an accelerant, according to Rigamer and a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office incident report.
Investigators suspect the culprit may have been a vagrant, Rigamer said.