Former student allegedly sets school on fire and posts on social media

Teenager charged with lighting Cowra High School on fire and posting it on social mediaPosted Tue 21 Jul 2026 at 9:01amTue 21 Jul 2026 at 9:01amIn short:A former student has been charged with breaking into Cowra High School and setting the site on fire last night.The 17-year-old was refused bail and will appear in a children's court today.What's next?Students will learn from home today while staff make the school grounds safe.A former student of a NSW Central West school has been charged with setting the site on fire and posting the incident to social media.The Cowra High School was closed this morning after its administrative block sustained extensive damage from the blaze last night.A 17-year-old boy was arrested at a home in the town about 10pm and charged with damaging a property by fire and uploading it to social media.He was refused bail and will appear in a children's court today.'Extensive' damage to school buildingFire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) acting superintendent Peter Murray said the agency received numerous Triple Zero (000) calls just after 7pm reporting a fire on the school grounds.Three FRNSW trucks supported by the state's Rural Fire Service were on scene in about 10 minutes to find the administrative building alight."It was a substantial fire, the damage was extensive to that part of the building," he said."Crews worked pretty hard and were able to fortunately contain it to that part of the building."It took about half an hour to control the fire, which caused smoke damage to nearby structures."To initially knock this down and get what we call fire control — to be fairly certain it hasn't expanded any further — within 30 minutes is quite good," said Mr Murray.No injuries were reported from the blaze.Police officers commenced an investigation into the fire, which led to the arrest of the teenager later that evening.He was charged with damaging property that exceeded $15,000 by fire, posting a video about the incident online, and breaking and entering to destroy property valued at more than $60,000.School closedCowra High School Principal Anthony Hamer said in a statement that an "unexpected" fire occurred at the grounds last night."This fire has caused damage to some areas of the school," he said."We are currently working to have the entire school site safe for the return of our staff and students."He said students would learn from home today and would not be able to access the site."We look forward to welcoming our students back to school as soon as possible," he said.