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LAS CRUCES - A fire that destroyed an auto repair classroom before school Thursday was caused by arson, Las Cruces fire investigators have determined.
Fire alarms went off at 4 a.m. from portable 12, on the west side of Mayfield High School, said Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Stan Rounds. Alerted by an electrician on campus, fire crews found thick black smoke and completely extinguished the fire by 6:30 a.m., but the 24-foot by 32-foot building, valued at $60,000, appears to be a total loss.
Inside the 26-year-old pink portable, the damage included tidy rows of tools with melted handles, soot-darkened textbooks on blackened desks, and several destroyed engine blocks. An estimated $15,000 in equipment, including a $4,000 error codes scanner, was destroyed, physical plant employee Gilbert Moreno said.
Instructor Frank Saggerson appeared dazed as students filed in to a replacement classroom.
"It's a rough deal, because we had a lot of our demonstration (equipment) for the kids, like an actual engine for assembly, disassembly, to show how these things work," Saggerson said. "It's toast. Totally gone."
No motive has been given for the fire, which is still under investigation, nor have any suspects been identified. Students had just been learning about workshop safety - including where to find nearby fire extinguishers, Saggerson said.
He paused and smelled the sleeves of his shirt.
"I smell like fire," he noted.
Saggerson's students expressed shock
"It really sucks, I'll tell you that," said 16-year-old Tony McLaurin Jr., a sophomore. McLaurin hopes to join Air Force Special Operations one day, but was in the class so he could buy a car, he said. Destroyed, he said, were "folders, work, tools, mechanical instruments, TV, computers, a whole bunch of stuff good for learning."
Left behind, he said, were a lot of questions.
"Where are we going to go now? What now?" McLaurin said. "How am I going to get my work done now that it's been burned?"
Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462.
