Blaze Believed Deliberately Set Guts Center for Developmentally Disabled in Arkansas

HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) -- A center for developmentally disabled pre-school youngsters was gutted early Thursday by a fire that investigators say appeared to have been deliberately set, perhaps as an attempt to conceal a burglary in which computers, television sets and other electronic gear was taken.

Heber Springs Mayor Paul Muse, a volunteer firefighter, said there were indications that the Community School of Cleburne County had been set on fire in several places.

The school serves about 80 children, from infants to 5-year-olds, not only from Heber Springs but from the nearby towns of Bradford and Mountain View. Operated by a nonprofit group, the center has been serving children for about 22 years, providing therapy to children who have problems ranging from learning disabilities to cystic fibrosis.

''It's just senseless,'' said Jack Rhodes, a longtime member of the school's board of directors. ''It takes either somebody very ignorant or somebody very heartless to do that, if they had any idea what that facility did for people. It makes you angry that somebody would do that.''

The walls of the concrete building remained standing but the inside was destroyed, Rhodes said. Muse said the building was insured for $350,000.

Investigators and school officials said electronic equipment, including television sets and computers, were missing from the school.

''They decided the building had been burglarized and set on fire to cover it,'' Muse said.