Five students arrested over Salendine Nook High School gym blaze

Nov 18 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Five students arrested over Salendine Nook High School gym blaze

FIVE pupils have been arrested on suspicion of arson over a fire that destroyed their school gym.

And it appears the arrests came after close liaison between the school and police probing the inferno.

The boys, all in year 11 at Salendine Nook High School, have been questioned by police about the incident on the night of Friday, November 6.

They have also been suspended from school for eight days.

Acting headteacher Andrew Foster said the pupils, all aged 15 and 16, were arrested following information passed to the police by the school.

But he said the cause of the blaze was being treated as careless, not malicious.

“It was reckless rather than a deliberate act,” he said.

About £30,000-worth of damage was caused when the blaze ripped through the building, an old cricket pavilion, the night after Bonfire Night.

It destroyed a number of pieces of exercise equipment, including treadmills and rowing machines.

An empty petrol can was found in the school grounds, which was initially thought to have been connected to the fire.