Other investigators had said yesterday that he believed the Sunday night blaze had been "touched off."
Richard W. Folts, Herkimer county fire coordinator, and his deputy, Ira Allen, said they believed the fire had been set.
They spoke out after spending most of the day at the burned-out shell of the high school. Firemen continued to play streams of water on the smoldering three-story structure.
BURTON F. SEYMOUR, 42, of 19 Center St., a paid fireman, lost his life after he and volunteer, Rober Day, plunged some 30 feet off the school roof into a courtyard in the middle of the school.
Day, 36, of 247 S. Fourth Ave., suffered a fractured pelvis. He was reported as "fairly comfortable" last night by Ilion Hospital officials.
MEANWHILE, it was announced today that 1,100 high school pupils would resume classes Thursday.
The school will definitely open Thursday morning, according to Leo Sammon, principal, said today.
For the time being, split sessions for the junior and senior high school students will be held in the Weber Avenue Elementary School, Leo Sammon, principal said. Senior grades nine through 12 will meet in the morning and the others in the afternoon.
The elementary pupils, numbering 425, will be moved to west Frankfort to utilize 10 rooms in the new West Frankfort school and four rooms in the old West Frankfort school on Ferguson Road.
DR. C. C. WHITTEMORE, county coroner, ruled that the death of Seymour, father of six children, was accidental. He said the victim's injuries included cuts and bruises of the liver and spleen, six fractured ribs on the left side, and a fractured leg.
FOLTS GAVE, this explanation of the arson investigation:
"We have no evidence yet, about the main fire. But we do have evidence pointing to arson in another part of the building that was not destroyed."
Folts said he was referring to charred books, chalk and papers found piled in the middle
of the floor in Classroom 316---in a wing firemen saved from the ravages of the main blaze.
FOLTS SAID investigators were probing a link between the high school blaze, a fire which destroyed Ilion's Russell Park pavilion April 6, and the breaking up of a teen-age hot dog roast last Friday night in the park.
Police Chief Maurice Goldin, who was leading the police investigation, said a number of
persons had been questioned, but that no arrests had been made.
INVESTIGATOR T. F. Ash, Troop D Identification Bureau, Oneida, a fingerprint expert, sent scraps of possible arson evidence to the State Police Laboratory in Albany.
