From Deseret News archives:
Ogden police investigate fire at LDS Institute
Police said someone doused a plastic flower arrangement with an accelerant and lit it on fire inside the institute's lobby on Sunday night.
"For one reason or another, either because common sense overcame their stupidity or what, they kicked it outside on the sidewalk and it burned out there," Ogden Police Lt. Scott Sangberg said Wednesday.
Damage to the carpet in the lobby was $300, police said. The fire was discovered by a custodian on Monday morning.
Police said the fire happened sometime after President Boyd K. Packer of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Quorum of the Twelve spoke at a fireside.
The Ogden incident is the latest where LDS Church buildings have been targeted the past week. The FBI is investigating a pair of envelopes containing a white powdery substance that was mailed to LDS temples in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.
All of the incidents have come in the wake of protests against the church for its backing of Proposition 8 in California, which banned same-sex marriage. Ogden police said Wednesday their major crimes investigators were looking for suspects. Police have noted there is no evidence to connect the Ogden fire or the other the Proposition 8 controversy.
"There had been some Internet communications on blogs that spoke of having some kind of a demonstration that night, but we didn't see anyone nor did university police," Sangberg said. "We were prepared and nothing came of it."
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
