Five fire crews were sent to University of York today after what was described as an arson attack.
Students and staff were evacuated from Wentworth College on the Heslington campus at about 1.40pm on Tuesday afternoon (May 2).
A spokesman for North Yorkshire Fire And Rescue Service said the cause of the fire was thought to be deliberate and investigations were ongoing.
Five fire engines for Wentworth now… @UoYSociology pic.twitter.com/ufu3wqwlcH
— Amanda Rees (@amandarees9) May 2, 2017
The student newspaper York Vision quoted the university’s health and fire safety officer Chris Teeling saying this was “a deliberate attempt to burn Wentworth Nucleus down”.
He told the paper that “above one of the toilets upstairs above the ceiling tile, somebody has set fire to something, which would have burnt the building”.
Because the alarm was raised quickly and the fire crews were able to respond within 15 minutes, there is not thought to be major damage.