A small fire at an elementary school playground was quickly extinguished early Wednesday evening.

Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester said a janitor at Cottonwood Elementary School, 215 S. Phillips, observed four juvenile males trying to set mulch on fire underneath a slide on the playground at about 5:30 p.m.

When the janitor approached the boys, three of them fled on bicycles and the fourth on a skateboard.

Forrester said the janitor found a pile of paper and mulch smoldering underneath the slide, which he quickly extinguished with a bucket of water.

The four boys were not familiar to the janitor and have not been located, according to Forrester.