Arson suspects arrested Arson suspects arrested in North playground fire

April 16--MOSES LAKE -- Three teenagers were arrested on Wednesday as suspects in an arson last week at North Elementary School.

The boys, all 16 years old and students at Moses Lake High School, were taken into custody and cited for second-degree arson and first-degree malicious mischief, according to Chief Deputy Ken Jones. The boys were booked into the Grant County Juvenile Detention Facility.

Deputies were seeking the boys in connection with a fire that destroyed playground equipment at North Elementary on April 7. Video surveillance of the incident shows the three suspects walking up to the playground equipment and two of them starting a fire under a slide. The teens then walk away from the equipment, until a few minutes later when one of them returns with some dried weeds and adds them to the fire. The extra brush reportedly set the slide aflame.

Firefighters with Grant County District No. 5 responded to the scene and extinguished the fire. The equipment was destroyed and Jones said the damage to the playground is currently estimated at $30,000. Moses Lake School District Superintendent Michelle Price previously told the Columbia Basin Herald the playground equipment was uninsured and district officials will be working with their insurance provider to replace the equipment as soon as possible.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at [email protected].

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