Wonderland bathroom fire suspicious, official says

WASILLA — Police are looking for whomever set fire to the bathrooms at Wasilla Wonderland Park.

According to a Wasilla Police Department press statement, officers responded at 9:49 p.m. Thursday to the park, where they found someone had ignited the contents of a bathroom trash can.

Police estimate damage to the building at $20,000.

“There was some damage to the building from smoke and heat,” Acting Central Mat-Su Fire Chief Michael Keenan said.

Though Keenan wasn’t working that night, he said the chief who was “got there real quick and knocked it down with a fire extinguisher.”

He said firefighters received the call after the security service employed by the city checked the bathrooms and found the room filled with smoke.

Wasilla Police Lt. Craig Robinson said firefighters called police who, in turn called the city’s parks department to come out and give a damage estimate.

Keenan said the fire has been listed as “malicious.”

“That’s the only way a trash can catches on fire, other than discarded smoking material, which isn’t what you typically see in public restrooms like that,” Keenan said.

Anyone with information about the fire is asked to call the Wasilla Police Department at 352-5401 or Mat-Su Crime Stoppers at 745-3333.

—Andrew Wellner