PARIS — The cause of a Jan. 15 fire that destroyed a SAD 17 school bus will probably never be determined, but fire and insurance officials believe it was electrical, Transportation Director Dave Fontaine said.

The engine compartment of the 2002 Thomas Freightliner bus that held 75 people and is normally used for runs in the Waterford area, burst into flames at the bus garage on Brown Street in Norway, around 10 a.m. This was about 30 to 45 minutes after it returned from dropping off children at school.

A parts delivery person who arrived at the garage, which is behind Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, discovered smoke coming from the engine compartment and notified personnel in the bus garage, who called the Norway Fire Department.

No one was near or on the bus at the time.

Fontaine said the state fire marshall was unable to determine the exact cause of the fire but the district’s insurance company has declared the bus “totaled.”

The replacement cost is estimated between $80,000 and $85,000 and Fontaine said he is now working with school administrators and the state to see if the state can move the district up the ladder for a subsidy to replace the bus because of its emergency nature.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Clean Diesel Campaign had $7 million in 2015 for the school bus replacement and retrofit funding program. The rebate program provides money to replace and retrofit older school buses in both the public and private fleets.

According to the Maine Department of Education, more than 530 school bus fleets nationwide applied to EPA’s 2015 School Bus Rebate Program, requesting more than $50 million in funding.

The totaled SAD 17 bus, which had 270,000 miles on it, was considered to be nearing “the end of its life” for the district and if the state had been on track with its subsidies, it would have been replaced already, said Fontaine.

“I’m at the ground level working with the finances trying to find out what’s available,” he said of replacement funding. Only two Maine school districts received funding and those – MSAD 15 [Gray-New Gloucester] and MSAD 49 – from the EPA funding.

Fontaine said he has been in touch with the Thomas Built school bus dealer in southern Maine who took all the information, such as the chassis and bus body numbers. Fontaine said the dealer keeps a log of their bus fires, but he was not told whether there had been any similar fires.There appeared to be no recalls on this particular bus that he was aware of.

In 2008, the engine compartment of a SAD 17 2007 Thomas Freightliner school bus burst into flames in the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School bus loop as the driver was about to pick up 10 to 15 students in the late afternoon bus run. The driver was in the bus, which was running, but was able to escape. About 200 students were waiting in the bus loop to board seven buses, including the bus that was totaled moments later.

The driver escaped without serious injuries but the bus was totally consumed.

The cause was in or around the fuel water separator. Officials found later that the bus had a warranty recall on breakers. A similar fire that destroyed the same model school bus in Newport school district earlier that year was caused by a short in an electrical component panel.

In the case of the 2008 fire, school officials took another same model bus off line immediately until they had written assurances from dealers that the bus was safe. School districts from across the state that have the same bus model also awaited clearance as they decided whether to keep their buses on the road.

In 1985, another SAD 17 school bus was damaged by an electrical fire. No one was on the bus when it shorted out and burst into flames under some of the seats.

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