By
ROMAN GOKHMAN
| Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: June 23, 2008 at 8:54 pm | UPDATED:
August 15, 2016 at 6:22 pm
PLEASANT HILL — An arson likely destroyed the police services
building at Diablo Valley College early Monday, investigators said.
We had two (fires) on the outside and one on the inside in the
lobby," said Contra Costa County Fire Marshal Richard Carpenter.
"Probably, the whole building will have to be replaced." " The fire
was reported at 2:25 a.m. in the 1,700-square-foot building located
in the southeast corner of the campus by Parking Lot 2. The school
runs along Golf Club Road.
The Contra Costa Fire Protection District responded with four
engines, one truck and about 20 firefighters. Carpenter said the
fire destroyed the lobby and the rest of the building sustained
heavy heat and smoke damage. DVC spokeswoman Chrisanne Knox
said police services, an actual law enforcement department that
patrols several campuses within the Contra Costa Community College
District, is based at Diablo Valley.
The department has about 20 sworn officers — five to six of whom
work at DVC — four higher-ranking officers including a chief, about
four dispatchers, two parking officers and 10 to 15 student aides.
On an interim basis, the police department will operate out of a
conference room in the business and foreign language department. "It
was designed as an emergency command center and has all the
(required communications equipment)," Knox said. The college
is looking at several other locations for a longer-term temporary
home for the department.
She said the cost of the damages to the building has not been
determined and it is not clear if it will be knocked down or
restored. "There was very little that was salvageable," she
said.
The criminal investigation is being led by the Contra Costa
Sheriff’s Office, Knox said, with Pleasant Hill police and the
school district police department assisting
Carpenter said fire investigators are still trying to determine what
kind of fuel was used by the arsonist.
Reach Roman Gokhman at 925-945-4780, or at
rgokhman@bayareanewsgroup.com.