SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Three people were in custody Wednesday after a fire that leveled a historic school in Magna.
The two-alarm fire gutted the abandoned Webster Elementary School early Tuesday morning, forcing demolition crews to tear it down later in the day.
Two adults and one juvenile were arrested in connection with the fire.
``It doesn't appear as if it was malicious,'' Salt Lake County Fire Capt. Jay Ziolkowski said Wednesday. ``They were inside just messing around, lighting the fires, and this one got away from them,'' he said, though he declined to say how they started the fires.
Arrested were Christian Nieser, 26, and Gedie Nieser, 18. The two were not formally charged as of Wednesday evening, but were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on felony charges of arson and burglary.
Neither the juvenile's name or age was released.
Bail was not set for Christian Nieser, but Gedie Nieser's bail was set at $25,000.
The elementary school was built in 1912 and abandoned in 1995, when ownership reverted back to Kennecott Utah Copper. The company planned to turn it over to the Utah Nonprofit Housing Corp. for affordable apartments.
Kennecott has been threatened by a radical environmental group called the Earth Liberation Front. The group claimed responsibility for a fire at a West Jordan lumberyard last week that caused $1.5 million in damage, but investigators quickly ruled out any connection between the group and the fire.
