That Fire Wasn’t An Accident

The fire at Seymour High School appears to be an act of vandalism, police and school officials said.

Someone broke into the lobby area of the swimming pool at the high school just after 3 a.m. and lit two small fires using toilet paper and firework-type materials, police said.

The area that the fire was started in is all cinderblock,” said police spokesman Capt. Paul Beres. There isn’t a whole bunch that could burn there. If it were a true arson attempt, that wouldn’t be the place that you would want to start it.”

An alarm notified police at 3:18 a.m., according to Richard Belden, the school district’s assistant superintendent for finance and operations.

Police and firefighters responded to the scene and were able to put out the fire out.

Belden said the damage was limited to smoke damage in the lobby area. The pool itself was not exposed to the fire or the smoke, he said.

There was no structural damage at all,” Belden said. There’s not a lot of combustable material in the area.”

Vandalism

Beres said there were reports of other minor vandalism in the neighborhoods near Seymour High School Wednesday night, but it’s not clear if it’s linked to the fire.

We know there was some activity,” Beres said. To say they were related, I don’t know.”

Seymour has had a lot of reported vandalism in the recent months — most notably at Legion Pool, owned by the Seymour Land Trust.

Article continues below vandalism timeline below.

Seymour V. on Dipity.

Alex Danka, vice president of the land trust, said that since the group installed cameras at the site and became more vigilant about watching the property, vandalism incidents have practically stopped.

There has only been one incident since April, Danka said.

I think it’s rediculous what happened at the high school,” Danka said. Maybe it might be time that we have an overnight security guard stationed up there.”

Danka said any cost for the security guard would probably be less than costs of cleaning up vandalism.

Even though there was minimal damage from the fire, Danka suspected the vandals will return.

They always like to come back,” Danka said. They like to come back and do more.”

No Suspects

Police are investigating to determine who broke into the building and lit the fire.

The doors to the lobby were forced open, Beres said.

Belden said the school doesn’t have any cameras in that part of the building, so there is likely no surveillance footage of the incident.

Beres asked anyone with information pertaining to the incident to call the police department at (203) 881‑7600.

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