City police and fire teams are investigating a string of fires that broke out last month on the grounds of five different Baltimore school buildings, one currently in use and four others that are not.

The five fires, which all broke out in the afternoons or evenings in late July, exclusively erupted at elementary/middle school facilities, according to incident reports obtained by The Baltimore Banner through a public records request. Four of the five blazes occurred on the city’s west side over a five-day period; the other fire happened in Southeast Baltimore a few days later.

Lindsey Eldridge, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Police Department, said each incident is being investigated separately, though any similarities that crop up are being examined closely for any patterns. Police say some of the incidents have been ruled as arsons, and they are being supported in the investigation by the Office of the Fire Marshal, School Police, the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Eldridge said police and city agencies have convened to establish a school fires work group in the aftermath. The group will not only support the investigation, she said, but also work to produce “target-hardening strategies” and fire prevention.

Facing city and student population declines, the school system has transferred more than three dozen school buildings to the city since 2013.

The vacant school buildings have posed several problems for city officials tasked with securing and finding new uses for the sites. They are also disruptive for community members, who are often opposed to their neighborhood schools shutting down.

Meanwhile, city and state government officials have jointly funded the rebuild or renovation of about 30 school buildings. As a condition to receive construction funds from the state, city schools officials have been tasked with reviewing and recommending schools to close. Usually, students are dispersed from shuttered schools to one or more “receiving” schools. Some neighborhoods have seen multiple schools go dark.

Once a school is closed, the school system decides whether to keep the building or offload it to the city. More than $2.6 million was allocated to the city’s Department of General Services for surplus school care, records show, for the budget year that started this past July. Those costs have been increasing steadily for years, with the city spending just $460,000 on vacant schoolhouse management in the budget year that ended in June 2018.

Most of the sites have been vandalized, and in many cases, stripped of their copper wiring and plumbing. Community members have complained that it can take years for the properties to be demolished or repurposed and often become blighted or targeted for vandalism. In only a few cases, the city has been able to find buyers to take the sites off their hands.

John Riggin, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of General Services, which typically oversees “surplus” school buildings that have been transferred from Baltimore City Public Schools to the city, said each location had been “locked or padlocked,” with some doors welded shut, and had been subject to regular check-ins from a roving security team.

“As we learn more,” Riggin said in an email, “DGS will adapt the activities we implement to secure surplus schools.”

The first of the July school fires started at an in-use schoolhouse just before 4 p.m. on July 23 at Beechfield Elementary/Middle School, which welcomed students back on Monday. The blaze erupted in a “portable trailer” that the school uses as classroom space, according to the incident report from the Fire Department. It resulted in the “complete burning” of a classroom and its contents. The cause remains under investigation, the report said.

Sherry Christian, a spokeswoman for the school system, said the fire was confined to the trailer and did not affect the school’s ability to reopen for the new term. The trailer is not currently in use, Christian added.

The school system is not using the rest of the schools that were affected by the fires, Christian said.

The day after the Beechfield incident, a fire broke out just before 3 p.m. on the playground behind Steuart Hill Academic Academy in Union Square, a surplus school. The playground equipment and the rubber mulch supporting it caught fire, according to the fire incident report, and a cigarette lighter was spotted at the scene. Steuart Hill closed in 2023 after parents and community members were unsuccessful in the contentious battle to keep it open.

The following day, a fire broke out around 7:30 p.m. at the Sarah M. Roach Elementary School building, which the incident report described as vacant and “unsecured.” The school closed at the end of the 2019-20 school year.

“The school has been vacant for some time and is in a state of disrepair,” the report stated.

Firefighters located the flames in a small office off the main hallway near the school’s entrance, where the fire caused the ductwork to deform and fall, according to the report. The Fire Department listed the cause as “incendiary,” though no accelerants were located.

Officers arrived at the scene of the fourth fire, on July 27, just after 6 p.m. at an attached vacant school building and recreation center — the former Gilmor Elementary School, which closed at the end of the 2019-20 academic year, and Lillian S. Jones Recreation Center.

Firefighters found a group of school-age children in and outside the school when they arrived on scene, the report stated, with some “inside the building running around and yelling.”

The building was “ransacked” and in “complete disrepair,” with evidence of what appeared to be “numerous fires” previously set using trash and construction materials, according to the incident report. The wood gymnasium floor was actively burning, and firefighters also found a fire in the hallway leading to the cafeteria, and one inside it. The cafeteria fire appeared to have involved a large roll of toilet paper that had “extended to other trash,” per the incident report.

Police and arson investigators were summoned to the scene due to the “nature of the incident,” the report stated.

The fires paused for a few days before a fifth broke out shortly before 11 p.m. on July 31 at the Commodore John Rodgers Elementary School in Southeast Baltimore. The school hasn’t closed but the students have been relocated to “swing space” until construction of a new building is completed, said Christian, the school system spokeswoman.

“Small trash” fires were found on the school’s first floor, the report said — and the source was determined to be in the front office near the entrance.

“Multiple fires were found within the same area covering the entire floor space,” officers wrote in the report. Three entrances were open when they arrived.

Eldridge, the police spokeswoman, said the investigations are ongoing. No civilian injuries were reported in connection with any of the fires, she added. One firefighter sustained a minor injury during fire suppression.