2 teens face charges in Goshen school arson.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

GOSHEN - Fire officials announced Tuesday that two 14-year-old boys have been arrested and charged with setting a fire on July 18, 2003, that destroyed Goshen Elementary School's more- than-half-century-old gymnasium and cafeteria in a towering blaze that took a team of firefighters from seven departments to extinguish.

One boy was caught setting several small brush fires in Springfield's Gateway area this spring and his cooperation led authorities to the second boy, Springfield Fire Department spokesman Mark Walker said. Both boys attend a private school in Eugene and were staying at a home near Goshen Elementary School last summer, Walker said.

Fire officials did not provide either boy's name, and The Register-Guard only publishes the names of juveniles charged with certain felony crimes.

The boys could be sentenced to probation and possibly some detention time, along with counseling, Walker said.

"It's important to get youth into a fire-setter program as soon as it's identified," he said, "because there is a link between this and adult arson crimes and other criminal activity. No matter what the sentence is, it needs to involve some fire-setter counseling."

It's believed that the Goshen Elementary School fire started in a pile of debris or newspapers next to the gymnasium. The afternoon of the fire, both boys had gone down to the school to play, Walker said.

Students at the school spent the entire past school year eating brown-bag lunches served in a classroom at the school. A new $1.4 million gymnasium/cafeteria building, complete with a portable stage for plays and other events, won't be completed until the 2005-06 school year, said Steve Barrett, deputy superintendent of the Springfield School District. Construction has begun and a temporary covered playground will be ready when school begins this fall, Barrett said.