NEW “FIRE BUG”

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 July 1938, Page 2

NEW “FIRE BUG”

N.S.W. SCHOOLS DAMAGED. SYDNEY, June 24. There was a fire at the Orange Grove Public School in the suburb of Leichardt, last Thursday night. The week before someone had. broken Into the girls’ section of the school at night, and had piled up a large heap of torn books and exercises on the floor, apparently intending to set it ■alight. The intruder must have ben scared by some sudden alarm, for he did nothing more except to write on the blackboard in largo block letters these ominous words: “Public schools are the bugbeaf of civilisation.” The authorities were not inclined to take seriously the inscription or the signature, “the Lone Wolf.” Yet they would have done well to take precautions, for seven nights later the landlord of the hotel opposite, looking out of his window toward midnight, saw the school in flames. Part of the building dated back to 1893, and the flames, carried along the narrow passages, burned fiercely. Four fire brigades from neighbouring suburbs were soon at work, but the main roof and five large classrooms were seriously damaged. According to Departmental officials, it will take from £2500 to £3OOO to repair the place, and in addition to this the teachers using the rooms lost books and personal property Worth nearly £2OO. Of course the school < was closed next day, and the children attending' it—about 800—were sent home. When the buildings were examined later it was found that the outer door had been forced 'open, and in .some of the

classrooms drawers and desks had been ransacked. There were many signs of deliberate purpose about this fire, and the detectivese have agreed that, it was the work of an incendiary. T his view is supported by the remarkably frequent recurrence of fires in schools in Sydney and suburbs within the last few months. Since the beginning of September last, seven separate schools in various parts of ih£ metropolitan area have been wholly or partially destroyed by fire.

Within the past two months fires have occurred in four Suburban schools —at Leichardt, Rozelle, Petersham, and now again in another part of Leichardt—at Orange Grove. The police have come to the conclusion that those fires were all the work of the same incendiary—probably a boy about 1C years old who has either been forced to stay at school or has been expelled from school, and so is inspired by an intense hatred against al] work which is carried on.