Grant High School offering reward for arson information

Grant High School officials are offering a $1,000 reward in hopes of finding the vandals who set fire to a new classroom under construction and caused $100,000 in damage.

Fox Lake police say the fire happened sometime overnight May 31 to June 1 in the construction area on the east side of the school at Route 59 and Grand Avenue.

After damaging the building's second story, the vandals gathered flammable equipment, threw everything into a pile and set it on fire, Lt. Jeff Norris said.

The equipment, which included blueprints, blankets, insulation and cabinets, became engulfed in flames, spread into the walls and air ducts of the new facility, Norris said. The fire snuffed itself out inside the air ducts.

"Construction workers discovered the charred debris when they arrived for work at about 6:45 a.m. Monday," Norris said. "It's classified as an arson. Schools don't start themselves on fire, after all."

Destroyed in the unfinished classroom was the ceiling grid, sheet metal, air ducts, wiring and other construction equipment. Norris said the fire burned hot enough to blow out two windows.

District 124 Superintendent John Benedetti said sprinklers had not yet been added in that area, and construction workers were installing the pipes needed to carry water throughout the new facility.

"We are very disappointed that someone would choose to break in and damage or attempt to destroy this new facility," he said. "With this reward, we are confident we will be able to both identify and convict the perpetrators."

The high school is undergoing the first of two phases of construction. The first phase includes construction of a field house and the 21-classroom addition that was set ablaze. The second phase, expected to start in the fall, will be the renovation of a single-story wing into a two-story classroom area.

District 124 taxpayers approved a $38.5 million referendum in fall 2008 that funded the project.

People with information about the incident should contact Grant High School at (847) 587-2561, or Fox Lake Police at (847) 680-5506.