After nearly two months of investigating, CAL Fire officials have concluded both Oct. 13 fires were declared arson.

CAL Fire was called in to investigate the source of the flames after their occurrence. Before officially declaring it an arson, CAL Fire had to search for clues and evidence.

“After a thorough investigation we were able to determine that both fires – in both halls – were intentionally set and were arson,” said CAL Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant.

Three fires were set on campus, one in Mendocino Hall, one in Mariposa Hall and the last one reported was in a trash can near the tennis courts. The three fires were reported within a short time period of each other, which added to speculation that it could have been arson.

Since then, students, faculty and the campus community as a whole have been wondering how the fires were started.

“I’m not surprised at all that it was arson,” said junior communication studies major Troy Petrunoff. “It was too suspicious when two fires in two different buildings went off.”

Now that the fires are declared arson attacks, University Police, as well as other departments, are looking into who the suspects might be.

“At this point moving forward, Sac State Police, CAL Fire, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms are continuing their investigation following up on who set the fires, but at this point we have no additional information,” Berlant said.

Russell Preston can be reached at [email protected]