MILWAUKEE _ A Milwaukee man was charged Tuesday with arson in connection with a Jan. 5 fire in the Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (EMS) building on the UW-Milwaukee campus.<\/p>\n
Zhexuan Zhou, a sophomore at UWM, was arrested late Friday, Jan. 8, after UWM police received a tip about a suspicious person.<\/p>\n
Zhou has been charged with felony arson and felony reckless endangerment in connection with the fire. He also was charged with misdemeanor arson in connection with a fire that occurred in the UWM Physics building on Dec. 22. That fire extinguished itself by the time police arrived and caused only minor damage.<\/p>\n
The preliminary estimate for cleanup and restoration in EMS is $300,000 to $500,000, including rebuilding a classroom and cleaning and restoring smoke damage on each of the building\u2019s 13 floors.<\/p>\n
On 7:40 p.m. on Jan. 5, UWM police responded to a report of smoke on the first floor of the engineering building. The officers located the source of the smoke in a first floor classroom and activated the building\u2019s fire alarm. The Milwaukee Fire Department responded and extinguished the small fire, but not before smoke traveled throughout the building.<\/p>\n
Because the fire occurred late in the day during UWM\u2019s winter break, few people were in the building and all were safely evacuated.<\/p>\n
Responders determined the fire was suspicious, and the UWM Police Department contacted the Wisconsin Department of Justice \u2013 Division of Criminal Investigation \u2013 State Fire Marshal\u2019s Office. The state fire marshal conducted an investigation on Jan. 6 and concluded the fire was an act of arson.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, Jan. 8, UWM Facilities staff were provided instruction on looking out for suspicious activity connected to the Jan. 5 fire.\u00a0 Later that day, a UWM custodian notified police about a suspicious individual in the Lubar School of Business building. Police found Zhou and took him into custody.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate Facilities\u2019 assistance and the custodian\u2019s alert response,\u201d UWM Police Chief Joseph LeMire said. \u201cHer prompt notification of the police contributed to the arrest of this suspect and may have prevented further criminal behavior and damage to our buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n
The engineering building was closed through Dec. 10 for the investigation and cleanup. Cleanup continues even though the building has reopened.<\/p>\n
About UWM<\/strong><\/p>\n As Wisconsin\u2019s only public urban research university, UW-Milwaukee has established an international reputation for excellence in research, community engagement, teaching and entrepreneurism. On a budget of $667 million, UW-Milwaukee educates more than 27,000 students and is an engine for innovation in southeastern Wisconsin. Its economic impact is more than $1.5 billion per year in Wisconsin alone. The Princeton Review named UWM a \u201c2016 Best Midwestern\u201d university based on overall academic excellence and student reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MILWAUKEE _ A Milwaukee man was charged Tuesday with arson in connection with a Jan. 5 fire in the Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (EMS) building on the UW-Milwaukee campus. Zhexuan Zhou, a sophomore at UWM, was arrested late Friday, Jan. 8, after UWM police received a tip about a suspicious person. Zhou has been charged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[202],"tags":[],"section":[],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-27370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-releases"],"yoast_head":"\n