A fire at a South Anchorage elementary school Monday evening did thousands of dollars in damage to the playground, police said.
Anchorage School District spokeswoman Heidi Embley said in a Tuesday statement that the fire at Bowman Elementary School, near Lake Otis Parkway and O'Malley Road, was reported by a neighbor who heard "a lot of noise from vehicles at the school."
"Two pieces of playground equipment were destroyed," Embley wrote. "Replacement materials will be several thousand dollars. Much of the damaged area was cleaned last night and the area is fenced off from use."
Embley said police and fire officials were investigating the blaze. Police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro couldn't immediately provide details on the investigation, since reports on the fire were still coming in from officers.
Anchorage Fire Department spokesman John See said two units from the Huffman station responded to the fire, which was first reported just after 8 p.m. He said the fire was "pretty visible" and occupied firefighters for at least half an hour due to rubber mulch used in the playground's construction.
"That mulch is resistant to extinguishment once it starts burning," See said. "It takes a while to overhaul -- getting all the smoldering, the combustion out."
Embley said in an email Tuesday that the district typically doesn't see playground fires "until the summer months" each year.
"The level of damage is typically the same, burned equipment and playground padding," Embley wrote. "The cost of the damage varies by the size of the pieces of equipment that are damaged."
ASD officials were planning to revisit the site Tuesday, to better assess the damage in daylight.
Last year, three incidents between June and August at Taku and Alpenglow elementary schools and Aquarian Charter School caused $108,700 in damages, according to the Anchorage School District.