What appears to be an illegal fireworks stunt gone wrong destroyed the football field at Mount Diablo High, just days before the team was slated to play its first home game of the season.

There is a cruel irony that the Mount Diablo High School football team is called the Red Devils. A cruel irony because their home football field on the school’s Red Devil Stadium was destroyed by a fire this past weekend, a the Bay Area News Group reports. The center of the field is now a massive burn scar where the artificial turf used to be, and that surface is likely unplayable for the remainder of the season. The team is currently scheduled to play their first home game against San Rafael’s Terra Linda High School on Friday, and is scrambling to make alternate accommodations.

Bay Area News Group’s article above has plenty of pictures of the massively burned and melted field. The fire reportedly started around 10:30 pm Saturday night, and was not fully extinguished until well into Sunday morning.

Update: The Concord Police Department has obtained security video showing that someone was lighting fireworks from the field just before the blaze. "A review of surveillance footage shows what appears to be several persons, possibly juveniles, setting off fireworks on the field the night before, which may or may not have led to the fire," the department said in a Tuesday Facebook update. "Both CFD investigators and CPD detectives are continuing to investigate to identify the persons responsible."

“When I got here, the whole fire department was here, whole police department was here,” the school’s Principal Dr. Markell McCain told KTVU. “They had put the fire for the most part pretty much out, they were still wetting it from hot spots, but it was already damage done.”

According to KRON4, the school’s overall football field and surrounding track complex cost $3 million, and it had just been completed in March of this year. The turf was supposedly flame-retardant.

With the field now unavailable, the Bay Area News Group speculates the team could play their season on the Diablo Valley College football field, which is less than three miles away from Mount Diablo High. The Diablo Valley College field has previously hosted numerous high school football games.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact the Concord Police Department Detective Lee Lawrence at (925) 671-3234, or the department's anonymous tip line at (925) 603-5836.

Note: This post has been updated with a statement from the Concord Police Department.

Related: SFPD Arrests Alleged Arsonist Who May Be Linked to Playground Arson Cases [SFist]

Image: Nolan Mendoza via Facebook