TACOMA, Wash. — Three teens have been arrested in connection to an arson at an abandoned Tacoma middle school on Jan. 3, according to the Tacoma Police Department.
The Tacoma Fire Department responded to Gault Middle School at 1115 E. Division Lane around 4 a.m. on Jan. 3 as flames tore through the roof of the building. Crews did not enter the building because it had been designated as "dangerous and derelict."
Arson investigators developed probable cause to arrest two 15-year-old boys and a 15-year-old girl for allegedly starting the fire at the vacant school building. Tacoma and Gig Harbor police officers arrested the teens on Wednesday, Jan. 10.
All three teens are booked into Remann Hall Juvenile Detention Center in Tacoma for first-degree arson and second-degree burglary.
KING 5 does not name suspects until they are charged in court and does not typically name juvenile offenders.
The fire department has responded to multiple fires at the school building since it was vacated over a decade ago.
The Jan. 3 burn started in the back of the building, which was inaccessible to firefighters when they arrived. Instead, they waited for the roof to burn off and started attacking it from multiple ladders. It took firefighters several days to extinguish all of the building's hot spots.
The building is vacant and has sat empty since the school was closed by Tacoma Public Schools in 2009 due to declining enrollment in the district. The district said the building faced "constant vandalism" in the years since. It was originally constructed in 1926.
According to the school district, the City of Tacoma approved a demolition permit for the building at the end of December, with the goal of beginning demolition in February. Due to the recent fire, Tacoma Public Schools says that the process was expedited.