Apparent Arson At Daffodil Park

At approximately 3:00 am this morning (Thursday, March 17) my wife and I smelled smoke and got up to investigate. To our horror we discovered a portion of the playground equipment across the street in Daffodil Park engulfed in a blazing inferno.

We immediately called 9-1-1, and a Lewisville fire truck arrived within about 5 minutes (it always seems longer). The fire was immediately extinguished, and I'm sure an investigation followed.

From my perspective, I can see no scenario where this was not a deliberate act of arson. It appeared that one of the metal trash cans had been placed under the tube slide, which is where the fire must have originated. (I will wait for the fire department's report before speculating much further.)

This fire was very large at the time we discovered it, and as far as I could tell later this morning (in the dark) it totally destroyed the tube slide, and severely damaged the flooring under the playground equipment. It also had to have scorched a major portion of the rest of the equipment.

The Daffodil Park playground is designed specifically for small children, who are the fire's ultimate victims. There can be no motive for this other than random, mindless destruction of city property that brings joy to young kids.