The two yellow playground slides had been at the rear of Relay Elementary School for almost 15 years.

Each day, countless children slid down them.

At night, they sat in silent darkness.

Until the night of Sept. 14 -- or perhaps the early morning hours of Sept. 15.

At some point during that time, flames illuminated the usual nightly darkness behind the Selford Road school and the slides melted away.

The next morning, "there were no slides," said principal Heidi Miller. "They melted down completely."

County police who responded later that morning found only piles of plastic in the playground's mulch.

The crime was labeled a "first-degree malicious burning," according to officer Rachel Aiosa, a police spokeswoman.

Police interviewed a few neighbors.

One said she'd smelled something burning but hadn't thought much of it, said Aiosa.

Police recommended the school install lights on the rear of the building.

But there wasn't much else to be done.

The most difficult part of dealing with the crime was left to the school's teachers, who had to explain to their youngest students that "someone had come to the school in the middle of the night and done something they shouldn't have," Miller said.

It wasn't easy.

"It was the second week of school for our kindergarteners, and their playground was burned down," Miller said.

"They're all disappointed."

They all share a certain amount of frustration about the senseless crime, she said.

"Yes, I'm very disappointed that somebody would vandalize a kindergarten playground," Miller said, adding that her teachers feel the same way.

The fire marked the most damaging vandalism at the school that Miller said she could remember in her three years.

"Occasionally there's some graffiti and things, but nothing excessive," she said.

"Nothing like this."

For a week, the kindergarten students were taken to other areas to play, sometimes to another playground for older kids that doesn't quite fit their ability level as well, Miller said.

The damaged playground was decommissioned from providing recess fun and wrapped in orange tape, deemed unsafe because of the open ledges where the slides once were.

Then, on Sept. 23, the county swooped in and put boards on the burnt area where the slides once stood as temporary fixes to make the playground safe again -- but still not quite as fun.

The county also replaced the mulch, and following police advice, installed lights on the school to discourage vandalism in the future, Miller said.

"It's really bright lighting, so that's really proactive and timely," she said.

"I'm very impressed."

New slides have been ordered from the playground manufacturer, but will probably take several weeks to arrive, Miller said.

"It's going to take some time," she said.

Until then, the kindergarten students will have to make do with the two thirds of the playground that are left, she said.

There's still one slide and a "fun little ladder thing," Miller said.

"It still has a lot of fun equipment on it," she said.

But it's not the same.

The whole episode has been a hassle, Miller said.

But there was one upside for the students, she said.

"They've really learned a lesson, because they see how destroying someone else's property is wrong," Miller said.

"It really was a powerful lesson to see."

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