Teens accused in Co-op fire

PALMER -- Police have accused three juveniles of setting the fire that completely destroyed the historic Matanuska Valley Farmer's Cooperating Association building in downtown Palmer last month. The juveniles were accused on Feb. 12, just eight days after the fire. The fire caused damages in excess of $1 million the property's owner said at the time.

Under Alaska law, the names of juveniles charged with arson must be made available to the public, but so far only one of the children has been charged, according to Juvenile Probation Supervisor Sean Owens of the state of Alaska Division of Juvenile Justice. The division makes charges public only after the juveniles are arraigned, according to Owens.

"The police have been doing their thing for a while, and we [Juvenile Justice workers] are only in the beginning stages of our part," Owens said. "At this time, I can only tell you that one of the juveniles has been arraigned."

Palmer Police Chief George "Russ" Boatright said his department would not release any names. Boatright also said he did not know for certain that Juvenile Justice would follow through with all of the charges his department had forwarded against the youths.

The only juvenile named, 13-year-old Nathanael Row, a Palmer-area resident, is accused of one count of first-degree arson, according to information released by Juvenile Justice.Boatright said last week that police also forwarded charges against two other juveniles, a boy and a girl, both 14 years old.

Boatright said the investigation has mostly been comprised of interviews with teen-agers.

"Kids talk. And when they talk, sooner or later another kid hears it and says 'Hey, that's not right,'" Boatright said. "Not all kids buy into this sort of behavior and when they get wind of something like this they will tell an adult or call us."

According to Boatright, Palmer Police Department forwarded several charges against the juveniles, including first-degree arson, criminal mischief, second-degree burglary, reckless endangerment and failure to report a fire. Police initially accused one boy of more than 12 counts of first-degree arson, the second boy of three counts of first-degree arson and the girl of one count of first-degree arson, according to a list of charges provided by Boatright.

"You have to understand that further along the way, some of these charges could be combined [by Juvenile Justice authorities]," Boatright said.

Police were able to interview the children and confirm the locations of other fires that were set in the Palmer area with information the children gave them, according to Boatright. He would not say how many fires there were or where they were set, but did say that each of the fires -- with the exception of the fires set inside the co-op building -- was either put out by the children or burned out on its own.

Alaska law provides disclosure of information about accused juvenile offenders in cases of crimes that endanger other people and in cases where violent crimes are committed. For example, charges of burglary in a dwelling can be released, but burglary on unoccupied property, such as the vandalism spree last fall at the fairgrounds of the Alaska Sate Fair, can't be released.

First-degree arson -- arson that endangers another person, including firefighters -- is one of the crimes the Division of Juvenile Justice considers a "reportable offense" under the law, according to Owens.

Firefighters from several fire stations worked for more than 24 hours to put the co-op blaze out. Smoke was reported coming out of windows at the historic building at about 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 4. The fire destroyed one wood-framed building entirely and consumed large portions of two others. Owens and Boatright confirmed that the youths are accused of setting more than one fire inside the co-op complex.

"I can't really say that they intended to do the amount of damage that they did," Boatright said. "But the fact that they started the fire -- they did intend to do that."