Alaska Star - Suspected arson destroys lone building at Camp Singing Hills on Edmonds Lake 07/09/09

Story Last modified at 11:42 a.m. on Thursday, July 9, 2009

Suspected arson destroys lone building at Camp Singing Hills on Edmonds Lake

Alaska Star Staff

A fire destroyed the lone building at Camp Singing Hills, the Girl Scout camp on Edmonds Lake in Chugiak July 1.

Jane Straight, executive director for the Susitna Council, said officials with the Chugiak Volunteer Fire Department told her the blaze appeared to be arson.

The fire department was called to the scene just after 8 p.m. when police spotted the fire. APD was in the area investigating a trespassing call at the neighboring Boy Scout camp, Camp Gorsuch.

The remains of the lone building at Camp Singing Hills, a Girl Scout Camp located on Edmunds Lake in Chugiak. Camp officials suspect arson to be the cause of the fire. Photo Courtesy of Jane Straight

“The Boy Scouts told me they had chased off a group of young men who were trying to access their beach,” Straight said. “They called the police. A few minutes later they hear a window breaking and then they saw smoke.”

The building and all of its contents were lost in the blaze.

The CVFD and state fire marshals are investigating the cause of the fire for leads as to who may have started it, according to Straight.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, July 9, 2009.