SAN FRANCISCO – OUTER RICHMOND DISTRICT
UPDATED – PRESS RELEASE FROM SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT
Lee Heidhues 5.23.2025
It torches my mind to read the news that school yards and playgrounds in this quiet neighborhood nearby the Pacific Ocean are being torched.
Only the most mentally challenged human could engage in such a display of pyrotechnic mayhem.
Lafayette Elementary School and Lincoln Park are both a short walk from our home. Our two children spent many hours in their youth playing in both locations.
Liz Heidhues and I regularly walk past the sites of the conflagrations.
I had a conversation with our District police captain and told him these incidents of wanton arson are “scary.”
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 5.22.2025
Two playgrounds in the Outer Richmond have burned down this week, marking the latest in a string of suspicious fires at an elementary school and park that have triggered alarm among San Francisco parents.
“These things don’t spontaneously ignite,” Fire Dept. Lt. Mariano Elias said. “But we can’t just assume it was arson.”
In the past three weeks, San Francisco firefighters have responded to four blazes of increasing magnitude — two at Lafayette Elementary School and another two at nearby Lincoln Park — that reduced the colorful playgrounds at both sites to charred equipment, melted plastic and burnt rubber.
“This is starting to look like we have a serial arsonist targeting our school,” said Hallie Albert, vice president of the Parent Teacher Association at Lafayette. “We are all bewildered.”
The San Francisco Fire Department has not labeled the fires as arson, but spokesperson Lt. Elias said they are considered suspicious.
The first incident happened three weeks ago. Firefighters responded around 1:30 a.m. May 1 to the 4500 block of Anza Street, where they found a burning storage container in the yard outside Lafayette Elementary School, according to the fire department.
The next week, a small fire burned a hole through a slide around 11 p.m. May 10 at the Lincoln Park playground, at 34th Avenue and Clement Street, according to the fire department.
Then a second fire erupted at Lafayette school around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, sending black smoke billowing as bright flames devoured the playground, according to the fire department and video from the incident.
Parents vocalized their concerns at an emergency meeting hosted Wednesday night with Superintendent Maria Su, Supervisor Connie Chan and members of the police and fire departments, who reassured the community that they are working to catch the culprit.
Later that night, however, another fire erupted less than half a mile away — back at the Lincoln Park playground.
Flames fully engulfed the play structure as firefighters responded around 11 p.m. Wednesday, according to the department.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/s-f-s-playgrounds-burning-down-firefighters-20341285.php
Top photo – Lafayette Elementary School playground – photo San Francisco Chronicle
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