CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - As Summer finally gets underway and temperatures soar into the 90's, many kids still feel the urge to play outdoors.
But some playground equipment can absorb the sun's heating rays and become dangerously hot.
WBTV took a laser thermometer to Mallard Creek Park in North Charlotte. We found the black poles used to support the giant play structure reached around 120 degrees.
"That's just extremely too hot," said Ashleigh Gania, who brought her 2 kids to the park with her Wednesday morning.
"We just got here 15 minutes ago and we're getting ready to leave because it's so hot."
We handed Gania our thermometer to see for herself, how the equipment temperatures could get dangerously hot.
She checked a set of metal climbing bars, and found they measured 120 degrees. The seat of a dragon rocking toy was almost 150 degrees. We also found a black rubber mat meant to cushion falls from any equipment, measured almost 170 degrees. That's hot enough to burn skin.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission suggests parents touch and feel all surfaces and equipment their children may come in contact with before they are allowed to play on it.
For Gania, it was all too hot. She took her two kids and left the park in search of a pool.
