MARYSVILLE (CBS13) — The only lesson learned at Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts today is that criminals don’t go on vacation, even during the holiday break.

Principal Tim Malone got the unexpected wakeup call around 5 a.m. Monday, just after just after the fire alarm went off at the small charter school tucked behind the Marysville Joint Unified School District headquarters.

“It’s just a shame that they would cause damage like this,” Malone said. “They probably figured they were pretty safe hidden back here.”

Hidden from passing drivers maybe, but not from the surveillance cameras that caught the criminals in the act, taking their time as they first tried but failed to start one fire under a bench:

“We could see the residue and the ash. It just fizzled out,” Malone said.

But then the determined firebugs finally lit a blaze outside Classroom 10.

“There’s a lot of damage there to the exterior,” Malone said.

The damage spread to two nearby classrooms as smoke filtered in.

“You wonder why anyone would do that to a school,” Malone said.

But the principal the police will track down the suspects.

“They should be scared,” he said.