Kids in Montgomery County have a reason to smile this week, because the playground at Greenbriar Local Park in Potomac has reopened — 20 months after it was intentionally set ablaze and destroyed.
The playground, located on Glen Road, was open for eight years before it was left in ashes on May 7, 2024.
Darren Flusche, deputy director for administration at Montgomery Parks, told WTOP that this was not the type of playground where you take it off the shelf and install it.
“It was built kind of into the topography, the hills of the park,” Flusche said. “We had to replace the custom play equipment that we had there that was somewhat site-specific.”
Flusche pointed out it was a beloved playground, and Montgomery Parks wanted to replace it in kind.
“For a local park, it’s a relatively large playground, and it has these multiple dramatic slides, it has multiple tiers and walkways that kids can traverse and play,” he said.
The area around the playground also has a rubberized surface that is safe and accessible for people in wheelchairs.
Montgomery Parks estimated that nearly $1 million was spent on damage and replacement costs, plus the time and effort for their staff, which Flusche said took away from the other 265 playgrounds in their 415 parks.
“One of the costs of this fire was delaying some other playground somewhere that is in desperate need of renovation,” Flusche said. “So that’s part of the cost, is just adding to the burden of our already long list of playground repairs.”
The arson case is still open and that anyone with any information can call Montgomery County’s arson hotline at 240-777-2263.
“It was devastating to have it intentionally burned down,” Flusche said. “So it was really important to us to restore the playground just as good as it was before, for the kids in the community who really enjoy coming here and gathering and having a safe place to play.”
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