Queen Anne’s HS Student Charged With Arson of Classroom

CENTREVILLE, MD (December 13, 2012) – A joint investigation by Deputy State Fire Marshals and Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Deputies has revealed the cause of the fire in the 2nd floor classroom of the Queen Anne’s County High School located at 125 Ruthsburg Road in Centreville to be intentionally set by a 16 year-old male student.

The 8:16 a.m. fire was first located by an attentive student that reacted appropriately and activated the fire alarm by pulling a wall mounted fire alarm station. School staff quickly responded to the classroom and extinguished the blaze involving file cabinets and boxes containing paperwork before the fire sprinkler system could activate. A small fire that was quickly extinguished in a 1st floor bathroom by staff occurred prior to the classroom fire with no reported damage loss.

Approximately 1,250 students and staff evacuated the building and were quickly transferred to another location before being sent home for the day. No injuries were reported during the incident. Damage and clean-up estimates for the incident is $5,000.

The juvenile responsible for setting the fires has been charged with: Arson 1st Degree, Arson 2nd Degree, Malicious Burning 1st Degree, Malicious Burning 2nd Degree, Disruption of School Activities and Malicious Destruction of Property. He has been detained by the Department of Juvenile Justice.

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Media contact: Bruce D. Bouch, Deputy State Fire Marshal; 443-324-6876
The Office of the State Fire Marshal is an agency of the Department of State Police dedicated to helping protect

citizens from fire and explosion through a comprehensive program of education, inspection, investigation and fire protection engineering. For more information on fire safety call 1-800-525-3124, log onto our website at: www.mdsp.org/firemarshal and/or https://facebook.com/MarylandStateFireMarshal.