Boy suspected in small fire at Palmer school

PALMER — Flaming toilet paper in an upstairs bathroom briefly disrupted the end of the school day at Swanson Elementary Thursday afternoon.

Palmer Director of Emergency Services Jonathan Owen said from the scene about 3:45 p.m. that school staff noticed smoke coming from the bathroom and pulled a fire alarm. He said the fire was quickly extinguished and crews were cleaning up.

“A very small boy … apparently lit a roll of toilet paper on fire in the second floor bathroom,” Owen said.

He said school officials are pretty sure they know which boy set the fire, but he’s likely younger than the age at which city police would choose to file charges. Owen said Palmer Police Chief Russ Boatright was on scene working with administrators to see if the boy could be put into counseling.

Mat-Su School District Spokeswoman Catherine Esary said the fire came right as school was letting out.

She said that, initially, school officials suspected some sort of electrical fire and so the school’s principal decided to evacuate the building.

“It was right at the end of the day and so the principal took staff and students out to their designated places,” Esary said.

When firefighters came and discovered it was just burning paper, she said the school let everyone back in so children could get their backpacks.

All-told, she said, the incident disrupted the school schedule for about 20 minutes, during which time buses waited to arrive to both keep out of the fire department’s way and give students time to get back in and grab their things.

“It was really no threat to the kids,” she said.

The scene at the school Monday afternoon was remarkably orderly, considering the circumstances.

Parents started arriving to pick up their children shortly after the first fire trucks arrived. Fire trucks with flashers on were still in the parking lot as children left to walk or bike home and parents loaded up their cars.

Children went home the same way they did everyday, albeit 10 minutes late and with a somewhat thrilling end to the school day.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.