Juvenile charged in connection with fire at Bourbon alternative school | Lexington Herald Leader

A juvenile has been taken into custody and charged in connection with a Friday night fire that damaged an alternative school in Bourbon County, Kentucky State Police said Saturday.

The juvenile was taken to a detention facility in Fayette County, said Trooper Charles Loudermilk, public affairs officer for the state police post in Dry Ridge.

Loudermilk did not know the age of the juvenile or the exact charges but said he will release more information after he speaks with an arson investigator.

The old house that housed the Continuous Learning Center is a “total loss,” said Paris Fire Chief Mike Duffy. The house is on the same campus as Bourbon County High School in Paris.

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Firefighters initially responded to a report of two Dumpsters on fire at the Bethlehem Road address, Duffy said. When they arrived, firefighters found two Dumpsters and a recycling roll cart on fire, he said.

No sooner had those blazes been extinguished than another call came in for a structure fire elsewhere on the school campus, he said.

When they arrived there, firefighters saw flames coming through the roof of the house, Duffy said. Flames were also coming through windows on the right of the building. The blaze gutted the interior.

Duffy said he thought the alternative school had an enrollment of about 14 or 15 students. He said arrangements have been made to move those students to another building on Monday.

The state defines an alternative program as a classroom, center or campus “designed to remediate academic performance, improve behavior or provide an enhanced learning experience.”