BATON ROUGE, La. – Two high school students were arrested for “causing a fire” at East St. John High School on Tuesday, Louisiana’s State Fire Marshal said.
Jennipher Murray, 17, and an unidentified juvenile were arrested and charged with aggravated arson. Additionally, Murray was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.
Late Tuesday morning, the Laplace Fire Department and St. John’s Parish sheriff’s office were called to a bathroom fire at the school. Once there, they noticed a significant fire burning in a bathroom at the school being controlled by the automatic fire sprinkler system, State Fire Marshal H. Browning said.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and said the building was safe. No one was injured in the fire.
An investigation into the fire found that it was intentionally set. Surveillance cameras helped in determining who was involved.
Both suspects are students at East St. John High School and were apparently skipping school activities when the fire was set, Browning said.
“We will not tolerate people who use fires as a crime and endanger lives, this should be a message, that if you set a harmful fire you will be arrested and prosecuted,” Browning said.
