BILLINGS — The Billings Fire Department responded to a call early Tuesday morning of a playground ball pit engulfed in flames at Poly Drive Elementary School.
The Gaga Ball Pit, a favorite among students, had only been installed for about two years before it was scorched around 4:30 in the morning.
See the damage here:
The ball pit cost nearly $5,000 to construct, funded through extensive PTA fundraising efforts.
“This is incredibly disappointing,” said Rhianna Tretin, vice president of the Poly Drive PTA. "It's something that so many kids can play at one time, which there's not a ton of things that can do that. And so it's really inclusive."
Tretin's son, Grayson, is in first grade at the school. He explained that Gaga Ball is somewhat like dodge ball.
“You just hit the ball with your hands and you can't kick it, but if it hits you below the knees, then you're out,” he said.
Neighbors in the area, who declined to be identified, described hearing a loud explosion before the fire.
Kendra Lien was playing at the playground with the two boys she babysits on Tuesday.
“We rode our bikes up here and saw the Gaga Ball Pit and we're just really sad to see that it was destroyed and burned down and unusable now,” Lien said. "It was one of their favorite things to do at recess."
According to Scott Reiter, Billings School District 2 executive director of facilities, this is the first time the district has seen a fire set to a ball pit, but they are accustomed to vandalism.
“We get a lot of vandalism at the schools. But typically it's more like windows getting broke, painting on graffiti, breaking some items and things like that. Sometimes stolen. This weekend we had a tractor stolen from one of the school sites, too,” Reiter said. "Unfortunately, our insurance deductible, I believe, is the minimum is $25,000. So anything under that we have to cover ourselves."
Reiter said the district was looking at the cameras to see if they could see who started the fire. A GoFundMe has been created to help replace the ball pit.
"We've set up the GoFundMe so that in the event that insurance does cover it, all donations can be refunded," Trentin said. "We're committed to replacing it."
