The Fresno State community is recovering from two fires last year that did millions of dollars in damage, disrupting studies and living plans.

The privately built University Village Apartments are rising literally from the ashes of a May 20 fire across Barstow Avenue from Bulldog Stadium. The fire caused $14 million in damage to the three-story project with 105 apartments designed for 406 beds.

An identical, rebuilt project is scheduled to open for students in mid-August, in time for the fall semester.

Meantime, students, instructors and staff members continue feeling effects of the Sept. 8 fire that destroyed a classroom and offices in the old Lab School complex on campus at California State University, Fresno.

The university's Learning Resource Center, which had operated in the complex, now occupies temporary bungalows west of the Peters Business Building. Staff members say they hope to move to more permanent quarters this summer. Arson was blamed for both fires.

Two men were arrested and charged with arson in the apartment fire, which caused an orange glow visible for miles. David Damore of Fresno and Doug Gandy of Oakhurst, both 21, are scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 23 in Fresno County Superior Court, said Don MacAlpine, Fresno Fire Department investigator.

There has been no arrest in the Lab School fire, the university reported.

The University Village Apartments had been counted on to relieve a tight student housing market this school year. Students who had planned to move into the new complex northwest of campus were offered the same basic leasing terms for next school year, the developer said.

Steve Crawford, vice president for management services of American Campus Communities in Austin, Texas, said about half the apartments are leased.

New tenants will pay slightly more to reflect inflation, Crawford said.

Cynthia Dondero, a coordinator with Fresno State's University Courtyard campus housing, said she expects all available beds to be taken despite the addition of University Village.

"We have taken more applications than ever," Dondero said. "We may still have a waiting list for on-campus housing."

At its peak last fall, the university's student housing waiting list exceeded 500 names, but the number fell through the year as students made other arrangements.

University occupants displaced from the Lab School on the south edge of campus have had to find other spaces to work and study.

The communicative disorders and hearing clinic did not sustain damage and remains in the Lab School complex, said university spokesman Mark Aydelotte.

The Learning Resource Center and its programs, including the Ronald E. McNair Program and Student Support Services, moved into the bungalows.

Negotiations between the university and insurers of the Lab School are continuing, Aydelotte said, and could determine whether Fresno State rebuilds the damaged Lab School buildings, constructs something different or moves the displaced operations elsewhere on campus.