Creeps torch Auburndale playground

When Lisa Ziegler brought her two kids after school to Underhill Playground in Auburndale on Tuesday, October 17, they found their favorite playground charred and boarded up after a mysterious accelerant-driven fire had ripped through a large equipment structure earlier that morning.
&#8220They said to me, &#8220Mommy, what happened?” Ziegler said.
&#8220How do you explain to a five- and seven-year-old that someone would do something like this? That there are bad people in the world?” she said.
Early in the morning on Tuesday, October 17, the playground structure had been torched using accelerants, which turned the fire-retardant wood pieces into charred debris, scorched the soft rubber material on the ground, and caused the metal handrails to bend due to the intense heat.
As of Friday, October 20, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said that they did not have a description of suspects wanted in the case, but asked anyone with any information about the fire to call the police or fire department. The 111th Precinct in Bayside is currently investigating the fire.
&#8220The community deserves to live in a safe area with safe parks,” said Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski during a press conference at the site. &#8220We are therefore asking the public to get involved and help find the criminals that burned this park.”
In 1997, the playground was totally renovated at a cost of $764,000, which covered the addition of three play areas, decorative fencing and safety surfacing to the playground that already boasted a wading pool, sandpit, horseshoe pits, and basketball, handball and shuffleboard courts.
Lewandowski said that she could only remember one other playground fire - in the 1990s in Maurice Park in Maspeth, which has since been fully repaired.
The Parks Department would likely find some funds to repair the park from within their capital budget, Lewandowski said. In addition, Councilmember John Liu offered funds for some of the repair bill.
Liu said that his five-year-old son Joey had frequented the large playground, located on 188th Street between Underhill and Peck Avenues and &#8220given his seal of approval.”
Since the company that made the play units, Playground Environments, is no longer in business, the Parks Department is currently looking for a company that can make replica parts.
If replacement parts cannot be found, Lewandowski estimated that it would cost $125,000 to replace the structure entirely and said that the Parks Department would release information about repairs through Community Board 11.
&#8220I hope that they wouldn't close the park totally down during the renovations,” Ziegler said.
Until repairs are made, the largest play structure - with a wobbly bridge and two slides - will remain boarded with &#8220Do Not Enter” signs. Local children, including Ziegler's seven-year-old daughter, Nicole, and five-year-old son, Kyle, will instead have to go to other playgrounds, the closest of which are the Saul Weprin Playground, located 53rd Avenue between 201st and 202nd Streets, and the &#8220Holy Cow Playground,” located on Peck Avenue and Horace Harding Boulevard.