The Little Rock Fire Department and Little Rock police are investigating a fire that burned a playground at Chicot Primary School late Sunday.
Emergency personnel responded about 11:35 p.m. to the school at 11100 Chicot Road. Fire Department Capt. Edwin Woolf said the fire was quickly extinguished and that there were no injuries.
The extent of the damage to the playground was not immediately clear. Photos posted online appear to show parts of the playground reduced to mounds of ash and melted plastic.
Woolf said the cause of the fire is under investigation and that arson has not been ruled out.
"Any time we have a structure fire or outdoor structure that catches on fire that doesn't have electrical, gas and things like that, you know, we have to go about making sure that it wasn't arson ... because it's going to be suspicious when there's no gas or utilities or anything like that," he said.
The fire was the second this month at a Little Rock School District playground. A playground at Carver Elementary School burned the morning of June 10. The cause of that blaze remains under investigation, as well, according to the Fire Department.
District spokesman Pamela Smith said surveillance cameras at Chicot Primary School recorded a group of youths before the playground fire. She was preparing the video Monday afternoon to be released to the media.
"We are very careful because we don't know what happened and how it happened exactly, but we want to release this video to be able to talk to the young people who were seen in the video, to see what happened and to ascertain who saw anything," Smith said.
Smith said the district is also seeking information on the fire through the Little Rock School District cellphone app, which has a section for anonymous tips.
A second playground at Chicot Primary School was not damaged. The fires this month are not expected to interfere with summer programs at either school, Smith said.
Fires last summer caused an estimated $225,000 in damage to playgrounds at Geyer Springs and Franklin elementary schools in Little Rock. Police arrested a Pine Bluff boy, age 15, on a charge of felony arson in connection with the blaze at Franklin Elementary. Authorities said he told investigators that he had been playing with a cigarette lighter, which fell and ignited the playground.
No arrests were made in the fire at Geyer Springs Elementary.
Metro on 06/28/2016