Early morning fire at Ventura school deemed 'suspicious'

Fire officials are investigating the cause of a fire early Thursday morning at a Ventura elementary school, which has so far been called "suspicious."

Crews from Ventura City Fire responded to a 911 call about a structure fire at Mound Elementary School on South Hill St. at 2:39 a.m., according to a news release. A report said the call was made by someone who was passing by on the freeway, Ventura Battalion Chief Tony Hill said.

Ventura County Fire, Oxnard Fire and the Ventura Police departments also responded to the scene, the news release states.

The flames had engulfed one classroom by the time firefighters arrived at the scene. They were able to hold the fire to the classroom, but two other classrooms were affected by heavy smoke damage, officials said.

The fire was extinguished within 40 minutes of the initial 911 call, officials said, and no injuries were reported. 

Hill wasn't able to say how much the damage would cost, but described it as pretty significant.

The cause of the fire is suspicious, Hill said, "mostly because there (were) no ignition sources that we could find." The fire remains under investigation. 

Ventura Unified School District officials did not have any additional information about the fire. 

The room affected was a special education classroom, according to district spokesperson Martin Foley. There were no summer school activities actively happening at Mound, he said.

Shivani Patel covers education for The Star as a Report for America corps member. Reach her at shivani.patel@vcstar.com or 805-603-6573. She is also on Twitter at @shivaaanip.