Foothill fire query moves off campus Foothill fire query moves off campus (March 04, 2005)

Reward hiked to $10,000 as investigation broadens

Pleasanton police said Wednesday that they and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are continuing to investigate a suspicious fire that caused an estimated $225,000 in damages at Foothill High School on Jan. 22.

Acting Special Agent in Charge Karl Anglin of the San Francisco AFT field division, announced that the AFT is posting a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the fire, which destroyed a portable classroom building being used for computer classes. The AFT reward boosts the school district's own $5,000 reward to $10,000.

Anglin and Sgt. Craig Eicher, who heads up investigations for the Pleasanton Police Department, said both agencies are looking at leads and evidence. While they still believe the fire was caused by arson, Eicher said they are no longer concentrating their investigation on students or even high school age suspects.

"I can't be specific, but we are looking at the possibility that it was someone with a grudge against Foothill," he said.

The fire was reported by a state highway patrolman who spotted the blaze from I-680 about 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 22. Also found at the time was slanderous graffiti painted on the wall of the school library some distance away from the classroom fire, which janitors said wasn't there when they left the night before.

Eicher said their investigation has determined that the paint used to draw the graffiti came from a discarded paint can used the day before for tie-dyeing T-shirts in one of the classrooms. The paint can had been discarded into an outside trash barrel.

"Again, though, we have no suspects on the graffiti and do not know if there was any link to the fire," Eicher said. "We can't be certain the fire was deliberately set, but we think so."

Anyone with information on the incidents can contact Eicher at 931-5100.

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