A 14-year-old boy has pleaded not guilty to setting a March 14 fire that destroyed a vacant seed factory warehouse next door to Endeavor Elementary School in Vancouver.
The boy is scheduled to be tried June 11 on a charge of second-degree arson.
He was arrested March 23 following a nine-day investigation by the Vancouver Fire Arson Team of the fire at the former Brown Seed Co. building in the Landover-Sharmel neighborhood.
The fire was reported at 5:55 p.m. in the concrete-block structure at 12101 N.E. 28th St. Witnesses said they saw two teenage boys jump a fence separating the warehouse from the school campus. One was carrying what appeared to be a gasoline canister. Minutes later, witnesses heard explosions.
Alan Brown, the building’s former owner, said the property was also sold on March 14 after languishing on the market.
