OXFORD – An engine fire suppressant system will be placed on six of SAD 17’s mini school buses.

The decision was made to outfit the smaller buses, which transport handicap students, because those students need more time to be evacuated from a bus, said Superintendent Mark Eastman.

Concern over school bus fire safety was heightened last September when a 2007 Thomas Built bus was destroyed after fire erupted in the engine compartment and spread quickly throughout the vehicle.

It was about to be loaded with students going home from after-school activities.

The bus driver kept about 10 to 15 students from getting on the bus after she jumped off herself to escape the smoke and flames.

About 200 students were in the bus loop readying to load one of seven buses. No one was injured, but the driver was taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway for evaluation.

Investigators believe the cause was electrical.

“We were not given 100 percent assurance of what the cause was,” Eastman told SAD 17 directors at a meeting on Monday while discussing the fire suppressant system. “We’re 99 percent sure it’s electrical.”

Besides the fire suppressant systems, which cost about $900 each, the directors approved purchase of four new school buses, but not without asking if they were the same model as the one involved in the fire.

They are Thomas Built buses, transportation Director Glenn Sirois said, but a different model.

The four buses, which will probably be on line by next October, cost $75,000 each.

Sirois said Thursday that four of the oldest buses in the fleet of about 44 will be offered to SAD 17 towns or put out to bid. He said the oldest bus being let go is 12 years old.

Officials keep an eye on the buses when they hit the 230,000-plus miles and by reviewing comments on the annual safety inspections to determine when they should sell them, Sirois said.