Playground upgrades at Rothesay school to proceed despite fire

Volunteers with a Rothesay school are pushing ahead with their playground surfacing project, less than a week after a fire at the site destroyed an estimated $25,000 in rubber pellets intended for the Dreamland Playground.

The early morning fire at Fairvale Elementary School last Thursday burned about 30 bags of the of rubber pellets, approximately half of the material ordered for the playground.

"We're grateful the other 36 pallets are still intact and we're able to move forward with our project this coming weekend," said Charlotte Pierce, chair of the playground committee and outgoing president of the Fairvale Home and School Association.

"But definitely, this is a loss for sure."

Some of the work on hold

The association contributed $28,500 toward the supplies after years of fundraising, Pierce said. It also received a grant from the provincial government, and a $16,000 donation from Coast Tire, which sells the Safe Play rubber crumb product.

The bales were delivered on large flatbed trucks at the end of June, and parents were planning to spread them around the playground structures this week.

That work will still go ahead with the salvaged rubber crumb, Pierce said, but other plans will have to wait.

"We were going to use the other bales in some areas around the playground itself, there's a metal area for some younger children, we were going to remove some pea gravel there and put it in there," she said.

"There's a large swing set area on a hillside we were going to fill with rubber crumb so it would have a nice surface under it, and it was all going to be used for sure."

Fire probe continues

Two classroom portables were also destroyed in the fire, as well as some furniture and other items that were kept there over the summer.

The Kennebecasis Fire Department is still investigating the cause of the fire and the possibility that it was due to a lightning strike has not been ruled out.

The rubber pellet supplier, Tire Recycling Atlantic Canada Corporation, told CBC News the company has never had an issue with fire in 20 years of business.

Officials said the pellets are used in many playgrounds, and storing them outside shouldn't pose a fire risk.

School officials do not believe the fire will cause any delays or problems for the coming school year.