Washington Teens to Pay More Than $500,000

Two 14-year-old boys who caused a fire at Lynden’s Delft Square building in Washington in June 2008 have been ordered to pay nearly $580,000 in restitution.

Whatcom County Juvenile Court Commissioner Thomas Verge ordered the boys to pay the money to cover out-of-pocket damage expenses for businesses that were displaced by the fire.

Prosecutors requested the teenagers pay the total amount of restitution claims, which included losses by those businesses’ insurance companies, of more than $5.2 million, but the commissioner declined to do so.

Court documents said the boys pleaded guilty to burglary and reckless burning charges after they started the fire while smoking marijuana on the building’s second floor.