When I read that there was no electricity to the building, my fear was that one or more of Concrete’s pre-teens might be involved in starting the fire.

Sadly, my instincts were right - I wish I had been wrong.

They should know better at their age and charges should be filed against those children’s parents if not the children alone.

What in the world were the 3 young boys doing with lighters and trespassing. What were they thinking on lighting a Mattress on fire, are they for real or just thinking like a 2 year old. With the laws as they are since they are minors they will get there hand slapped with MAYBE clean up crew in the town, the parents of these kids should be charged since obviously they were not watching them closely. Who now a days lets there kids run wild at that age with no supervision. The familys are not going to be well liked in the community now, is the state stepping in on Neglect of minors with fire substances?

There’ll be some sob story about how the parents shouldn’t be held responsible...of which I’ll call B.S. on RIGHT NOW.

They should call a community meeting and let those children explain to ALL of the community why they did something so destructive....

i totally agree with every bit of it.  i have been living in concrete for several years and i still can’t believe the neglegence of some of the parents.  to let three pre-teen boys run around with lighters?  what’s the world coming to?  i agree especially with manerva...they should explain to ALL of the community as to why they did something so destructive…

I am new to the area and from what I have seen I love it here although the mischevious kids you see in town is not a good sight. The parents need to be keeping more track of there kids instead of being in the bars and letting the kids run wild. No wonder the Juvenille Detentions are full. What happened to teaching the kids‘“NO". To hear of the kids’ bragging in school is pretty bad, obviously no structure at home or respect for others or other property.

I wonder if the cops had the kids do a pee test?? Probably not.

They should have the parents do it more than likely they would come back positive or smell of alchol.

Pretty much concur with the comments.  This is a tragedy and could have ended in three boys snuffed out last Sunday.  Not to mention possibly some firefighters’ lives, or some homeless persons or death &/or destruction at the store that caught from the embers.  The parents need to be sued by the City Gov’t of Concrete and made an example of in that legal fashion.

I agree with everyone in their comments,however,standing in front of the community and telling what you did will not bring it back, and it is not what Concrete really needs as a community to have someone(children)ridiculed. The Town of Concrete and its surrounding community needs to supply a place for kids to go to so there is less kids on the street roaming where they don’t belong. Not every kid uses the skate park.(bad investment) These are all of our kids, and we need to have a safe place where kids want to come to and have fun and watch movies, or play videos or games while keeping eachother company with adult volunteers. Where’s the helping hand of all of us since we are a small town.

While all of you are enthusiastically patting each other on the back, what I see is alot of speculation and B.S.

A urine test? The boys confessed days after the fire. A urine test could only prove they *might* have used drugs or alcohol after the fact and not on the day of the fire. Kids with lighters? Uh, yeah - kids can get ahold of lighters pretty easily; having one is not a crime. The kids were bragging about the fire in school? Where did you find that little nugget of information (or did you just make it up)? Don’t any of you remember going places you shouldn’t and playing with fire when you were kids? So far, this whole situation is proving to be something that got out of hand, not malicious.  You’re all trying to be judge and jury prematurely based on gossip.

Not very smart.

Livinupriver: actually the facts i stated about the kids bragging at school are true my kid’s attend there and one of the boys is in my childs class he went around telling everyone how they did it. NO i have never played with lighters nor fire when I was little my parents taught my brothers and i well and taught us to respect others things. How can you say that this is not malicious for gods sake they caught a building on fire, is that ok with you in your book because in a normal setting that is totally wrong. not sure if you were raised correctly if your thinking that was ok.

Livinupriver: Maybe it was one of YOUR boys that was involved??? since you are so quick to defend them. The parents should be more aware of what is going on with their kids. I have never played with lighters I was raised a whole lot better than that and I was raised in Concrete. My mom always knew where I was and who I was with and she worked a full time job and was a single mother.

standingup: When I was a teen we did have a place to go and there were still kids on the street there was a movie theatre and a “club” where there were adults that volunteered you can have that all you want and it will still not keep the kids off the stree.

I think that the kids need to be punished as adults and I also think that the adults need to be punished as well.

Posted by ms on May 02, 2008 - 10:19 AM

I really like, “I think that the kids need to be punished as adults and I also think that the adults need to be punished as well.”

The whole shaming idea is a bit easy and farcical.  Recouping the costs and sending a message like this sounds better.

You are not a real true parent unless you watch over you children at all times and knowing where they are and what they are doing. it is your job as a parent to do so. Kids these days have more issues than they did when i was younger, in school there was no such thing as an alternative all students behaved or got spanked from the principal now they run over there parents due to lack of stuture and run the town like they own it. we have alternative schools all over for these kinds of kids,you see girls in the preteens dressing like street trash, they dont purchase there clothes the parents do. it is all lack of structure and respect to all including yourself. the appearance of these kids is appauling.

annon: you do realize that kids frequently get stories wrong and embellish them, don’t you?  (Maybe not, since your behavior in your post reminds me of the behavior of a child) While your children may go to CES, it is certainly true that rumors spread there (like anywhere else) and grow out of proportion. Isn’t it possible that this is the case here?

Continued to annon:

While it is commendable that your parents raised you so well that you never played with fire, there are many children who were raised as well (possibly better) and were taught to “respect others [sic] things” but still played with fire and went places they were not supposed to. Incidently, your allegation that I was not “raised correctly” is really uncalled for (I was raised quite well, thank you).  And BTW, I never once said in my previous post that, malicious or not, setting the fire was “okay”. At this time, the act is being viewed as something that got out of hand, and not done with malicious intent (arson) in mind.

Please, in the future, try to leave out the baseless accusations when you respond - you’ll appear like less of a reactionary idiot.

ms: Nice try at a ridiculous and libelous allegation, but no - I have no children that were involved in the fire. 

For heaven’s sake - why is everybody reacting like such boneheads in this thread?

1) The boys did it.  They will have to pay a price.  These kids were poorly supervised and yes, the parents/guardians should probably be charged as well.  But look at the whole thing this way (instead of in a reactive, immature way):  now these children are in the system and will likely receive the help they need and deserve.

2) The building had been in extreme disrepair for years.  It was an eyesore and an embarrassment.  Now it’s gone forever.

Have you ever considered that the whole incident could be a blessing in disguise in several ways?

Funny how livinupriver is so defensive makes you wonder if they are a family member trying to cover the kids reps. my parents raised me very well THANK YOU VERY MUCH. i do know for a fact that the boys have been talking about it and telling there story as it was no big deal as a few of the teachers have said the same. funny how you dont understand the difference of a rumor and the truth, especially when the words are coming from the boys whom did the fire. i dont think that is in the category as a rumor. and obviously the kids have not been raise properly or they would not of trespassed and caused the fire.

FYI...THERE IS A PLACE FOR KIDS TO GO...EVERY MONDAY NIGHT THERE IS YOUTH DYNAMICS.  WE MEET AT DIFFERENT PLACES EVERY WEEK...BUT IT’S A GENUINELY FUN PLACE WITH FOOD AND GAMES AND ADULTS THAT HELP OUT...just thought i’d throw that out there

c-ranch, where is that out and how do we know where the meeting places are. i just moved up here about 3 months ago and would love to help out at something like that.

My comments are not to excuse what those boys did, but to try and separate the gossip and vigilante justice from the truth. Obviously *this* truth eludes you, annon. There’s a difference between defending someone’s “rep” and being an advocate for troubled and needy children.
Those children need help, they need counseling, and they need people to genuinely care about them. It’s easy to see that you *don’t* care about them and are ready to throw them under the bus because they made a very bad choice.

Seriously consider taking this advice: never become a teacher or a counselor or even a school paraprofessional. It’s people like you who mess kids up for life. (Psst...I’m not a relative of any of those boys - just someone who takes the saying “it takes a village” seriously)

Tar and feather these kids and ride ‘em out on a rail!

Just joking, but some of you act like this would be justified. They are kids who made a mistake by playing with fire. They burned down an abandoned building, which if it had been taken care of earlier might not have been present to burn. Maybe, the blame should fall to the city of Concreted or Skagit County for allowing derelict buildings to remain standing. 

Go ahead, ruin these kids lives forever, and see how they turn out after that.

Thank you for posting sense, Saheeb.  I was starting to think that I was the only one who would post in this thread thinking with common sense and a lack of kneww-jerk hysterics.

Could the situation have been worse?  You bet.  Was anyone hurt or valuable property lost?  Nope.  Thank God none of that is true and look at this (as I said a few posts back) as a potential blessing in disguise.

Sorry, that should read “knee-jerk”.  (I hate not being able to use a spell checker on this thing! ;-)

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