Fire destroys Columbia school playground

A Read-A-Thon with pajama-clad students, chili suppers and rainforest T-shirt sales helped raise more than $15,000 in 2005 for Cedar Ridge Elementary School’s playground equipment that was destroyed in a recent fire.

The equipment was installed last summer after six years of PTA fundraising, contributions from the Student Council and a $1,100 grant from Boone Electric Community Trust.

The rubber-coated equipment burned to bare metal poles Friday. Thick black smoke alerted teachers and staff who contacted firefighters.

Neighborhood students joined Principal Diana DeMoss and fellow teachers in observing the charred remains.

“I know that Mrs. DeMoss was really disheartened,” said Sara Rojas, a first-year special education teacher. “She actually gave a couple kids who came over hugs.”

DeMoss is not the only one mourning the loss. Mike Schupp and Scott Perkins, both fathers of students, recalled saving pennies and can tabs to help pay for the replacement for the rickety wooden structure of previous years.

“You’d never think something like this would burn,” said Schupp. “It looked like it had been dipped in plastic.”

Hardened red puddles now indicate where slides once stood.

Boone County Fire Protection District Sgt. Scott Ewing said the cause of the fire is unknown, and police couldn’t confirm if arson was involved.

It would take an intense heat, more than a match or lighter, to burn this equipment, said Norris McKinzie, assistant director of buildings and grounds with Columbia Public Schools. It is possible that the wood chip mulch on the playground could have ignited the equipment if enough of it caught fire, he said.

McKinzie anticipates removal of the burned equipment before classes start at the school on Aug. 23 and said it was possible that it could be replaced within the next several months.

Anyone with information can call the Boone County Sheriff’s Department at 875-1111 or CrimeStoppers at 875-TIPS.