Photo Credit: (Bill Tiernan / The Virginian-Pilot)
On August 16, 2006, the Mt. Trashmore skatepark or a big section of it caught on fire…from pictures it looks to be mainly the wooden bowl and anything connected to it. I was at the location sometime after the fire and I know that the vert ramp was still intact because it was separate from the park area. The park was completed rebuilt by March 2007.
From the Wavy.com article:
“On Tuesday, fire investigators said they think they have their suspects. Former Green Run High School students Alex K. Wilhelm who now lives in Richmond and Joshua Nichols who now lives in Northern Virginia were both charged.”
An interesting thing about how they got a break in the case was a Police Officer who was working an unrelated case in La Vista Nebraska stumbled upon some emails from Wilhelm to a friend in Nebraska. I find this so strange since the town I grew up in and skateboarded as a child is in the area of La Vista, Nebraska. Small world, eh? The search warrant obtained by WAVY.com claims La Vista Police obtained an e-mail where Wilhelm admitted to burning down the skateboard park.
Apparently the two suspects were underneath the ramp and lit paper on fire, left it and that’s how the ramp burnt down. According the article by Wavy.com, Wilhelm and Nichols face charges of burning or destroying property, and threats to bomb or damage buildings. No court date has been set.