Paul Bass photo
City firefighters respond to Troup School bathroom fire on Monday.
Somebody lit a second-floor bathroom paper towel holder on fire at Augusta Lewis Troup School Monday — leading to the displacement of 420 students, and smoke damage to the building.
Interim Police Chief Renee Dominguez gave that update Tuesday afternoon during the city’s latest crime-related press conference on the third floor of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.
Dominguez said that police got a call at around 11:20 a.m. Monday about the alleged arson at the Edgewood Avenue K‑8 school.
Chief Dominguez (right) at Tuesday’s presser.
“School officials smelled burning plastic,” she said. As the odor got stronger and stronger, those officials “located in the second-floor bathroom, where a paper towel holder secured to the wall was set on fire.”
The school was evacuated as the fire department and the police’s fire investigation unit responded.
She said that police have identified the juveniles who they believe are responsible for the fire.
“The investigation is ongoing,” Dominguez said.
Approximately 420 students present on Monday were taken out to the field behind the school, where they spent the rest of the school day. Troup students then spent the school day Tuesday at the Hillhouse Fieldhouse on Sherman Parkway.
Yale Not The Only University To Get A Bomb Threat This Weekend
Police and fire at High Street Friday afternoon during the Yale bomb threat.
Dominguez also provided an update Tuesday on Friday’s bomb threat at Yale that caused 10 campus buildings to be evacuated and several downtown streets to be closed to through traffic for over three hours.
She said that the city police department’s non-emergency line got a call at approximately 1:55 p.m. stating that there were bombs at eight different locations at Yale.
City police immediately contacted the Yale Police Department, she said. The city provided patrol officers and hazardous device officers to assist with the investigation.
While 10 buildings were evacuated and the area was shut down for hours, no bombs were found. Police and the university ultimately reopened the area as safe.
Over the weekend, she said, New Haven Police Capt. John Healy got a call from a Yale police lieutenant saying that the person who targeted Yale with the bomb threat is possibly related to other bomb threats that other universities across the country also received this weekend.
Those other bomb threats were called in at Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, and Brown, among other campuses, she said.
She said city police are working with the YPD and the FBI “to provide information to the larger investigation.”
NHI- " Somebody lit a second-floor bathroom paper towel holder on fire at Augusta Lewis Troup School Monday — leading to the displacement of 420 students, and smoke damage to the building."
-"Dominguez said that police got a call at around 11:20 a.m. Monday about the alleged arson at the Edgewood Avenue K-8 school."