GILBERT, AZ — Two teens were arrested on charges of endangerment and arson of an occupied structure after a Gilbert family's garage was set on fire Wednesday night, according to Gilbert Police.
At about 10 p.m. Wednesday, Gilbert Fire was alerted to a family barn on fire near Higley and Guadalupe roads.
When firefighters got to the scene they found a large, detached building engulfed in flames. The fire was put out a short time later and no injuries were reported, according to Gilbert Fire officials.
Jeni Jones was inside her home when she saw the family garage, which is detached from her home, had started to catch on fire. Just minutes earlier, her teenage daughter had been hanging out in the second floor of the structure with a group of friends.
The video in the player below shows the fire and was provided to ABC15 by the owner Jeni Jones
"They were back in the loft at 9:48," Jones said. "I called 9-1-1 at 9:52. So they barely got out."
In videos shared by Jones, the garage door can be seen blowing open from the force of the fire inside and smoke pouring from every gap in the structure.
By the time Gilbert Fire arrived, the fire had grown so large that the garage — and the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of family possessions inside — were a complete loss.
No one was injured in the incident, but after talking with the Jones family, Gilbert Police arrested two teenagers who Jones said had been part of a group of boys that entered the family property Wednesday night. Jones told ABC15 that two of the teens admitted to throwing fireworks into the garage, even though they knew that Jones' daughter and her friends were inside.
Jones said the two boys who were arrested had been friends with her daughter and had spent time with the family both on boating excursions and in the garage.
She said one of the boys, in particular, began harassing her daughter and saying things she felt were inappropriate, so Jones told her daughter to disconnect from him.
"I told her, just block him, don't have anything to do with him," she said. "And then this happened."
After the barn had been set on fire, Jones said one of the boys sent her daughter a Snapchat where he was flipping her off, then he deleted the message.
It's unclear if the two teens who were arrested have been released or charged with any crime, or if Gilbert is investigating the other teens who were at the scene on Wednesday night.
"Last night, I was just so sick to my stomach. I was in shock," Jones said. "It was just gut-wrenching."
Destroyed during the fire on Wednesday was Jones' husband's classic car collection, much of her clothing, her recently-deceased mother's hand-me-downs, the family's CrossFit gym equipment, her engraving machine, and countless other sentimental family items.
"My daughter's very first snowboard when she was like four or five," she recalled. "We were like, we'll save that for our future grandkids. So, that's gone."
As the Gilbert community continues to deal with the fallout from 16-year-old Preston Lord's murder by the so-called "Gilbert Goons" last year, Jones is demanding both parents and the community step up to stop more teens from being hurt by their peers.
"One of the officers did ask me if I thought that they were part of the Gilbert Goons," she said. "I don't necessarily think they're part of the Goons, but they definitely have the mentality of, you know, 'We come from money, we can get away with whatever we want. We play sports at the high school, we're popular, we can do whatever we want, and we don't have to get in trouble.'"
Jones is calling on the teens involved in the fire to be charged, and she also plans to pursue restraining orders against them as her daughter prepares to return to high school in the fall.
Gilbert Police say an investigation remains underway.
