Romain Playground structure burns in southeast Fresno

Romain Playground in southeast Fresno burned Sunday, sending a giant plume of black smoke into the air and leaving children wondering where they'll hang out now.

Fresno Fire Department sent one engine to put out the blaze shortly after 3 p.m. Battalion Chief Thomas Cope said around a dozen calls came in about it. He did not know how the fire started.

Plastic structures including slides and a small climbing wall melted and rehardened. Beige plastic pooled on the ground and the slides dripped, like a watercolor painting left out in the rain.

Dominic Voeuth, 10, covered his nose with his shirt as he and his friends assessed the damage. They were playing at the nearby skate park when they noticed the smoke.

“That was my favorite playground,” he said. “It was the only place we could play.”

Pete Santellano, a retired Fresno police officer and director of Police Activities League Boxing Program based at Romain, sees firsthand how much the park means to children in the neighborhood.

Santellano said kids swarm the park between 4:30 and 8 p.m. daily. He wrote an opinion article in The Bee in June urging city leaders to expand parks services before the City Council adopted its 2015-16 budget.

“It’s too bad,” Santellano said, looking at the fire damage and shaking his head.

Fresno ranks at the bottom of The Trust for Public Land’s annual ranking of municipal parks. But earlier this month, the City Council approved a deal with two nonprofits to build a better skate park at Romain.

On the heels of that victory, Sunday’s fire creates a new challenge in what Fresno Parks Director Manuel Mollinedo called an underserved community.

This story was originally published September 20, 2015 at 5:53 PM with the headline "Romain Playground structure burns in southeast Fresno."