JAY – Firefighters had to drive school buses through the bay doors at the Jay school bus garage Tuesday afternoon after a fire broke out in the building that housed nearly the entire bus fleet.
Unable to open the doors, firefighters wearing airpacks and masks had to drive through them, according to Jay Fire Rescue Chief Brian Shink.
A food service van and six of the nine buses in the building were saved by firefighters.
Metal and wood debris was scattered on the ground from the overhead doors of the 12-bay garage. One bus parked on the side of the building still wore the wooden door on its top.
More than 65 firefighters from Jay, Livermore, Livermore Falls, Farmington and Wilton responded to the fire, which was reported at 4:44 p.m.
The No. 5 bus appeared to be destroyed, and No. 7 bus was questionable, Shink said Tuesday. A John Deere tractor in the building was also destroyed, he said.
Some of the buses that were removed had scorched roofs, including bus No. 12, a 1994 and the oldest of the fleet, school Transportation Director Sue Weston said while she looked over the buses. She added that the No. 12 had its roof catch fire.
A crowd gathered to watch the firefighters work at the School Bus Road garage behind the Jay Elementary School.
Two of the buses had been parked outside, and a third bus had a blown motor and was at the Highway Department garage, Weston said.
Shink, who lives three houses down from the bus garage, said his wife, Marsha, alerted him to the fire as she drove up the road.
Weston said central office worker Kelly Lizotte called her after she was driving across the school parking lot and spotted the fire.
“I thought she was kidding,” Weston said.
The town will have to have an engineer come to look at the steel beams in the building, which he estimated are 80 feet long, because they were exposed to a lot of heat, Shink said.
The fire is believed to have started near the lawn tractor, Shink said, which was located next to bus No. 5. That area was taped off for state fire investigators, who were expected to arrive Tuesday night.
Town and school officials came to the garage to look over the damage.
Jay Superintendent Robert Wall had been on his way to a wake and had to turn around and come back.
“I think the most important thing for us to do is assess our damages and work with our insurance company to make sure we have our fleet operational at the beginning of the school year,” Wall said Tuesday.
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