An early Saturday morning fire damaged the Riley County owned building that houses Pawnee Mental Health Services in Manhattan.

Upon arrival at approximately 6:35 a.m. Manhattan firefighters found a grass fire next to a commercial building that was quickly extinguished. firefighters entered the building and found smoke inside. They realized that the fire was inside the wall of the structure. Crews opened up the exterior wall to complete the work of putting out the blaze. The fire was controlled in less than 15 minutes.

The loss by the Manhattan Fire Department at $10,000 to the structure and $1,000 to contents.

Sufficient evidence was recovered during the fire investigation to eliminate all known potential accidental ignition sources, and determine the fire was intentionally set. Fire investigators from the Manhattan Fire Department and the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s Office, in cooperation with the Riley County Police Department, are currently working on the investigation.