Torched Mill Woods playground troubles community
Investigators confirm fire was deliberately set
CBC News
Posted: Feb 1, 2013 2:22 PM MT
Last Updated: Feb 1, 2013 3:12 PM MT
Natalie Thorarinson, 12, and Megan Van Dam, 11, look at damage caused by a fire at the playground by Velma Baker School in Mill Woods. (CBC)
Mill Woods residents are upset over a fire early Friday morning that left a portion of the playground at Velma Baker School a charred, melted mess.
Fire investigators say the blaze was deliberately set.
"The first I saw it my heart dropped and broke," said Natalie Thorarinson, 12. "I almost started to cry I was so upset."
Recently Thorarinson help collect pennies to raise $5,000 to add a tire swing to the playground.
Now an entire section of the playground will have to be replaced.
"I can't believe that someone would actually come in with that intention knowing that it affects the kids, it affects the community, it costs dollars," said Emily Ollerhead, a parent and education assistant at the school.
Ollerhead helped fundraise more than $300,000 to build the playground four years ago.
Thorarinson said if someone set the fire on purpose, they should be forced to come and help re-build if they're caught.
The playground is on city land, and is covered by insurance.
With files from CBC's Lydia NeufeldShare Tools
Latest Edmonton News Headlines
- Edmonton places moratorium on body rub shops
- Edmonton is imposing a moratorium on new body rub parlours until January 2014. more »
- Homeless numbers drop in Calgary, Edmonton
- In a new national study on homelessness, Calgary and Edmonton are leading the way in efforts to reduce it and create solutions. more »
- $23,000 in roaming charges 'insane,' says Edmonton woman
- Memories of her Mexican vacation turned sour just two days after Sarah Farrell returned home to Edmonton. more »
- Half of First Nations children live in poverty
- Half of status First Nations children in Canada live in poverty, a troubling figure that jumps to nearly two-thirds in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, says a newly released report. more »
Must Watch
Top News Headlines
- Obesity now recognized as a disease
- The American Medical Association has voted to recognize obesity as a disease, while doctors in Canada say they also treat it as such. more »
- Neil Macdonald: Washington's obsession with leakers
- Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are just the most prominent targets in an all-out legal and propaganda campaign that America's security apparatus is mounting against leakers everywhere, Neil Macdonald writes. more »
- How open is Ottawa's new 'open data' website?
- Treasury Board President Tony Clement is touting the federal government's revamped data portal as a "new natural resource." But that online window for previously published data arrives at the same time the government faces controversy over just how open it really is. more »
- Half of First Nations children live in poverty
- Half of status First Nations children in Canada live in poverty, a troubling figure that jumps to nearly two-thirds in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, says a newly released report. more »
- Edmonton woman rings up ‘insane’ $23,000 roaming charge bill
- Zama spill site shows brown trees, 3 containment sites
- Man charged in connection with 2 Edmonton homicides
- Amber Alert ends after infant girl located by Edmonton police
- AHS to reverse controversial home care decisions
- CFIA shuts down Aliya's Foods over meat concerns
- St. Joe's program helps aboriginal students graduate
- New EPSB budget to cut 339 jobs
- Coun. Iveson confirms entry into Edmonton's mayor race
-thumb-140xauto-305451.jpg)
