'It's an attack on our students'

June 21, 2006

By DAN JOHNSON
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Just as deep wounds were slowly healing in the Casa Grande High School community from the May 16 fire that destroyed one-third of Leslie Field House, the remaining two-thirds of the building burned down Monday night, apparently due to arson.

"My first reaction was, 'It's just an unbelievable, brazen act,'" said Petaluma Fire Marshall Michael Ginn. "After the first fire, the building was going to be torn down, anyway, but this adds insult to injury.

"It hurts the spirit of the school community, and desecrates the former coach (Bob Leslie) and baseball team."

Casa Grande Principal Ron Everett and baseball coach Paul Maytorena expressed similar frustration.

"It is really devastating," Everett said. "I can't understand why anyone would want to do it. It's really an attack on our students."

"This is like a bad, recurring nightmare," Maytorena said. "I don't want to take it personally, but it's hard not to.

"About the only thing left was the Jonny Gomes sign, and that burned this time. After the first fire [in 1999], Jonny [then a Casa student] hooked a chain to a post to tear down the last of the old building so that we could rebuild."

Maytorena hopes that when a new field house is built, the arson problem will be avoided.

"This is just one more reason to rebuild (the field house) out of something that is fire retardant," he said.

After receiving a call from a resident at 10:11 p.m. that smoke was coming from the Casa campus, at 333 Casa Grande Road, Petaluma fire units reported to the scene and found the field house in flames. They controlled the fire in 15 minutes, but the structure was a total loss.

The field house had contained a snack bar, storage building, public address system and eating area. During the May 16 fire, the left portion of it burned, destroying a picnic bench and table, as well as baseball equipment. The fire caused $75,000 in structural and $50,000 in contents damages.

After the fire, most of the contents that could be salvaged were removed from the building. During the blaze on Monday, additional items -- including a refrigerator and coolers -- were lost, however. The fire caused $100,000 in damages to the building and a loss of $50,000 in belongings.

The cause of the fire is being investigated, Ginn said Tuesday.

"We're just getting organized," he said. "The situation is really raw right now, but we'll follow up on every lead we get."

Investigators will be trying to establish whether or not the two recent fires were caused by the same arsonist.

"I don't think they were," Ginn said. "My hunch is that they probably were random acts of vandalism, but they could be connected."

Ginn asks for anyone with information regarding either fire to contact him at 778-4389.

(Argus-Courier sports editor John Jackson contributed to this article. Contact Dan Johnson at djohnson@arguscourier.com)