{"id":406032,"date":"2026-07-21T02:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406032\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T02:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:46:14","slug":"fire-destroys-part-of-pinedale-elementary-school-playground-in-northwest-fresno-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406032\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire destroys part of Pinedale Elementary School playground in Northwest Fresno"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An investigation continues into what caused a fire that destroyed part of a playground at a Clovis Unified Elementary School.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Former students describe the moments as memories going up in flames as they witnessed part of Pinedale Elementary School&#8217;s playground catch fire over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Neighbors, including a former student of 6 years, Azriel Alonso, watched as part of his childhood playground burned to the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It hurt to watch it burn down. It was like a piece of me was gone,&#8221; said Azriel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Monday morning, crews were working on cleaning up the debris.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Clovis Unified School District describes the surrounding area as a tight-knit group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It&#8217;s such a community school, and that neighborhood there they really kind of wrap their arms around that school and their staff there. I think this is a tough thing not just for the school but for the entire community, &#8221; said Clovis Unified Assistant Superintendent and Administrator of Facility Services, Nick Mele.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mele estimates that it could take about 4 months to rebuild part of the playground that was destroyed, but they are hoping to work towards having it done sooner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Fresno Fire Department is still investigating what led up to the flames.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;So hopefully the community will help us in this process to figure out how this happened and maybe prevent it in the future,&#8217; mentions Mele.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the meantime, former students are cherishing the happy moments on this playground, carrying the memories in their hearts while looking ahead to the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Memories burn down basically; it hurts to watch because my family and I always loved this playground,&#8221; Azriel continues to mention, &#8220;I hope people, or kids, are able to experience what I experienced.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Hundreds of students are expected to return to campus from summer break on August 17th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">If anyone has any information on the fire, they are encouraged to contact the Fresno Fire Department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For South Valley news updates, follow Kassandra Gutierrez on <a data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KassandraABC30\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KassandraABC30\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> and <a data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kassgutierreztv\/?hl=en\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigation continues into what caused a fire that destroyed part of a playground at a Clovis Unified&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[162794,54091,112,18350,114,113,1724],"class_list":["post-406032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-azriel-alonso","tag-clovis-unified-school-district","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-fire-department","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-playground"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}