Someone entered Treadwell Park in Sandy Hook sometime overnight October 25-26 and set fire to the newly constructed Adventure Quest playground for small children, leaving the $15,000 facility a charred, molten shambles.

Police and fire investigators were at the foggy scene on the morning of October 26, inspecting the destroyed playground and seeking clues to who ignited the equipment and how it was done.

The playground was not insured against damage, said Tammy Marks, the local woman who had helped raise funds to buy the equipment, which had been assembled with volunteer labor October 22. (Photos of that volunteer project appear on page A10 of The Bee this week.)

“It’s amazing that someone would do something so awful, when we had built it for the kids,” she said. “It’s absolute devastation. My heart’s broken,” she said.

Getting the playground built involved a year’s worth of fundraising, she said.

“It’s incredible. It’s absolutely incredible,” Ms Marks said, shaking her head in disbelief. The playground equipment is designed for 2-to 5-year-old children.

Bill Halstead, the Sandy Hook fire chief who also is a deputy fire marshal, picked through the ashes of the debris and took photographs of the scene, in collecting evidence for his investigation into the blaze.

It is unclear how the fire was set, he said amid a scene of hardened molten plastic and solidified puddles of aluminum. The plastic jackets on the aluminum structures burned very hot, possibly destroying evidence that could lead fire investigators to determine the origin of the blaze, he said.

The fire’s heat exceeded 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, the melting point of aluminum, leaving hardened puddles of the metal throughout the playground. “It would have been a very hot fire,” he said. “There’s complete destruction,” he said.

“The whole thing is cold to the touch,” he said about 8:45 am, noting that the fire had been out some time before it was discovered by park workers at 7:30 am.

Mr Halstead noted the fire occurred on a foggy night in an isolated section of the park between the swimming pool and basketball court, out of plain sight from people passing by on Philo Curtis Road.

Mr Halstead inspected the section of the playground thought to be the point of ignition to learn how the fire was started.

Evidence at the scene indicates that the plastic jackets on the aluminum structures caused the fire to burn quickly.

Ron Moffat, the parks superintendent, discovered the destroyed playground when he arrived at the park early Thursday morning to make his daily check of the Treadwell Park swimming pool. The town’s emergency dispatch center reported no calls on a fire in the area Wednesday night.

 Mr Moffat said the playground project had been almost completed, but was not yet open to the public. The parks crew had helped build the playground.

 “The volunteers did a great job. It’s got to be heartbreaking when they hear about this,” Mr Moffat said.