JAY – Tuesday afternoon’s fire in Jay’s school bus garage caused more than $200,000 in damage to buses, the garage and a tractor, Jay Fire Rescue Chief Deputy Scott Shink estimated Wednesday.
The fire originated in a John Deere commercial diesel engine tractor, state investigator Chris Stanford said.
The tractor was parked next to bus No. 5, which was next to No. 7, in an enclosed area in the 90-by-110-foot commercial steel building. Both of those buses are believed to be damaged beyond repair.
The tractor’s malfunction was in either the wiring system or other parts, Stanford said. An insurance adjuster will have the tractor checked to try to determine exactly what started the fire on the tractor.
“Right now we’re leaving it undetermined because we can’t really tell what went on in the tractor,” Stanford said.
The tractor had been used all day mowing the fields and school grounds around the campus, Stanford said.
Jay Fire Rescue Chief Brian Shink, who also works as a bus driver and custodian for the Jay School Department, had hosed the tractor off, cleaned it up, parked it and locked the building before going home at around 4 p.m., Stanford said. Brian Shink is Scott Shink’s brother.
The fire was reported by the Brian Shink’s wife, Marsha Shink. That was at 4:44 p.m., Stanford said.
Something ignited the combustibles on the tractor – the seat, console, and the roof, which is made of fiberglass and highly flammable, Stanford said. As the fire spread to the building’s structure, the electrical wiring short-circuited, which caused a couple of garage doors to open and air to come into the building, Stanford said. With that, the fire spread to the buses, he said.
Firefighters had immediately donned air packs and masks so they could get in the building and drive out six of the nine buses and a food service van. Another bus that was on the far side of the building was driven out later. Most of the buses were driven through closed garage doors because firefighters were unable to open those doors during the fire.
On Wednesday, school officials from around the area called the Jay district with offers of buses, said the Jay school Transportation Director Sue Weston.
By Wednesday morning, SAD 9 had already sent a bus down from Farmington so that the summer recreation program and summer school could start on time. Jay had two buses parked outside the garage at the time of the fire, which were undamaged, she said.
Two of the nine buses in the garage – No. 5, a 2003 Blue Bird, purchased new at $66,000, and No. 7, a 2000 General Motors Co. bus, purchased new at $65,000 – are believed to be destroyed beyond repair, Weston said.
Several of the buses had scorched tops and received smoke and heat damage.
School Superintendent Bob Wall said Wednesday that an insurance adjuster had looked at the building that day, and school officials were working on having someone else look at the buses’ damage.
A structural engineer will be called in to check the building itself to determine what needs to be done, Wall said.
School Bus Road was blocked off on both ends near the building Wednesday.
Polly Given, a Jay bus driver, sat in Weston’s office Wednesday, mourning the loss of her bus, No. 5.
“I’ve driven No. 5 since it was new,” she said.
She had family pictures posted in it and other keepsakes, she said.
“It’s just my bus. My bus. And my bus is gone,” Given said.
One of the worries, Weston said, is that they won’t be able to get the smoke smell out of the buses, particularly the ones with burned roofs.
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