"Dino" Playground

A few nights ago while walking Riley I glanced across the ball field that stands between our apartment and the kids' favorite little playground and noticed what appeared to be tape or fencing wrapped around the playground. It was getting dark, however, and I couldn't really be sure. I assumed that maybe they were doing some repairs to it. The next morning -when I was again walking Riley (definitely missing a fenced-in backyard!) - I once again investigated. There was indeed an orange fence around it...and something looked very different about the playground...it almost looked...burnt...and the big slide was gone. This called for closer investigation.

Later that day, we all headed across the field to see what was going on with the boys' beloved "dino" playground (which is what the boys call it because of a picture of a dinosaur fossil on the back of the climbing wall...and this of course always spurs them on to play like they're dinosaurs or running from dinosaurs and such when we're there.)
(Picture taken last month)

As we walked across the field, It didn't take long to see that it was indeed -very unfortunately -burnt. The slides and climbing wall were melted into little piles of mangled plastic on the ground and the metal frame was charred and rusted. It reeked of smoke and burnt materials.

What a huge disappointment it was for the boys.

I don't know what happened -if it was accidental or arson - but it really frustrated me. Who plays with fire at a playground?! Thankfully the fire didn't spread to the houses behind the playground.

I walked over the other day and snapped some pictures. I'm also posting pictures of the playground before the fire for comparison. Hopefully a new playground will be put up soon, but I don't know if it'll happen while we're still here.

Here is a picture of the playground taken last month...


And here it is now (same angle, just closer up) - all but one of the slides were completely burned off and the climbing wall was just a ball of melted plastic on the ground.

Here is a closer look at the climbing wall before...

And this is all that's left of it now...

Here is the big slide before...

And here it is...or I guess I should say, here it is *not* now...

Here is one of the side slides before...

And this is all that's left of it now...

This is the only slide to survive the fire, so I'm guessing the fire started on the climbing wall side...

charred stairs...

This little side slide that was a few steps farther then the main playground was not burned...so that's good I guess...

But this....

...this is just sad.