Wood chips cause playground to burst into flames
KSNW-TV
A school security camera catches a playground going up in flames. Investigators say the culprit may be extreme heat.
WICHITA, Kansas, August 14, 2007 -- A school security camera catches a playground going up in flames. Investigators say the culprit may be extreme heat.
Officials believe that heat actually caused wooden chips on the playground to spontaneously combust.
The playground burst into flames in Arlington, Texas seemingly out of nowhere.
"Actually I thought it was quite shocking," Arlington Independent School District Superintendent Mac Bernd said.
A surveillance camera taped the whole thing and thru it authorities were able to figure out that heat caused the wood chips on the playground to spontaneously combust.
The fire marshal says a rainy first half of the summer followed by high temperatures caused the wood chips to decompose then start fire. And this might not be the only case. They've had playground fires before that couldn't be explained.
"There's a lot of things that they've said could never happen, but thru video we've seen it happen so argue with the video," Arlington Fire Marshall Keith Ebbel said.
In Wichita, one city park and a number of school playgrounds use wood chips for cushioning.
"We really think this is an unusual circumstance," Wichita school district environmental services supervisor Tim Phares said. He believes there's no reason for parents to worry.
"I have a lot of confidence in the products we use on the playgrounds,” Phares said. “We have several certified playground inspectors that work on the playgrounds. I have that certification as well and we have to meet consumer product safety guidelines on wood surfacing materials so I think this would probably down on the bottom of my list for concerns."
Meanwhile the city says the only playground they have that does use wood chips is mostly overgrown with weeks and probably doesn't present much of a fire danger. Still they do plan on replacing the wood chips with rubber this winter.
In Arlington, the superintendent has closed all 20 playgrounds that use the wood chips and says the district will spend 200-thousand dollars replacing them with pea gravel.
KSNW-TV
A school security camera catches a playground going up in flames. Investigators say the culprit may be extreme heat.
WICHITA, Kansas, August 14, 2007 -- A school security camera catches a playground going up in flames. Investigators say the culprit may be extreme heat.
Officials believe that heat actually caused wooden chips on the playground to spontaneously combust.
The playground burst into flames in Arlington, Texas seemingly out of nowhere.
"Actually I thought it was quite shocking," Arlington Independent School District Superintendent Mac Bernd said.
A surveillance camera taped the whole thing and thru it authorities were able to figure out that heat caused the wood chips on the playground to spontaneously combust.
The fire marshal says a rainy first half of the summer followed by high temperatures caused the wood chips to decompose then start fire. And this might not be the only case. They've had playground fires before that couldn't be explained.
"There's a lot of things that they've said could never happen, but thru video we've seen it happen so argue with the video," Arlington Fire Marshall Keith Ebbel said.
In Wichita, one city park and a number of school playgrounds use wood chips for cushioning.
"We really think this is an unusual circumstance," Wichita school district environmental services supervisor Tim Phares said. He believes there's no reason for parents to worry.
"I have a lot of confidence in the products we use on the playgrounds,” Phares said. “We have several certified playground inspectors that work on the playgrounds. I have that certification as well and we have to meet consumer product safety guidelines on wood surfacing materials so I think this would probably down on the bottom of my list for concerns."
Meanwhile the city says the only playground they have that does use wood chips is mostly overgrown with weeks and probably doesn't present much of a fire danger. Still they do plan on replacing the wood chips with rubber this winter.
In Arlington, the superintendent has closed all 20 playgrounds that use the wood chips and says the district will spend 200-thousand dollars replacing them with pea gravel.
This is crazy stuff...just crazy!!
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