A 47-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson after a fire broke out outside a San Joaquin Delta College building Monday night, college officials said.
The fire started shortly after 9 p.m. in or near a trash can outside the Center for Microscopy and Allied Sciences, which houses Delta College’s electron microscopy program. The flames spread to nearby bushes but did not reach or damage the building, according to Alex Breitler, the college’s executive director of marketing and communications.
Breitler said Stockton Fire Department crews extinguished the fire before it could spread further.
Because initial reports indicated the building might be on fire, Delta College police issued an emergency notification to students and employees, evacuated the building and secured the area. It was later determined the building itself had not caught fire.
Investigators learned that a suspicious person had been seen near the building around the time the fire started. Officers located the man near Pacific Avenue and Swain Road and arrested him about two hours after the fire, Breitler said.
The man’s identity was not immediately released. Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive and no injuries were reported.