HONOLULU (KHON2) — For the second time in two months, an Oʻahu playground went up in flames.
Police and firefighters were called to Sheridan Community Park in Makiki around 8:45 a.m. on June 30 to see the playground ablaze.
The Honolulu Fire Department was able to extinguish the fire shortly after.
HFD says investigators found several spots around the playground where an accelerant was used, indicating the fire was intentionally started.
“There’s no good reason to torch a kid’s playground,” said Nate Serota of the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation. “You know, this is something that belongs to the entire community. This is something that is supposed to create positive memories for kids and families in our areas.”
The city says from finding a contractor, replacing the structure and fixing the surface, it could cost up to $300,000 to fix.
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“But we do set aside some money to address vandalism, but to the tune of $300,000, that’s a lot,” said Serota. “So it really probably will take away from some other park renovation that we had, a playground renovation, because we do try to revisit playgrounds that need repairs. There’s normal wear and tear that our playgrounds have.
This marks the second arson to destroy an Oʻahu playground in the past two months, the first happening in May, when the playground at Wahiawa District Park was destroyed due to fire which recently reopened thanks to community donations.
“So even with the donations, which really cut a lot of costs out of that, that still was in the ballpark of $200,000 to replace that playground,” Serota added.
The playground was initially installed back in 2018, costing under $133,000 for the structure and surface.
There have been no arrests made in connection with either fires. Anyone with any information is asked to call police.