Stella fire destroys school bus barn

Sept. 18--STELLA, Mo. -- A fire on Wednesday destroyed a bus barn near the East Newton School District's Triway Campus in Stella.

Superintendent Todd McCrackin said the fire was noticed by custodial staff after 5 p.m. Wednesday. When he left the scene after 8 p.m., firefighters were still there, but the blaze had largely been extinguished. No injuries were reported, he said.

"I arrived on the scene and stayed for two hours, and they were still putting out smolders and things like that," he said.

In addition to destroying the bus barn, the fire also destroyed three older buses and damaged other items in the building, McCrackin said.

He didn't have a dollar amount for the damage on Thursday afternoon, saying the district was waiting to hear from an insurance inspector.

District operations were not disrupted by the fire, he said, noting that the district had been able to run its bus routes normally using spare buses. The only issue could be having enough buses when there are student activity trips, he said, and the district transportation director has been looking into borrowing a bus.

The district intends to replace the destroyed buses once it finds out how much of the damage will be covered by insurance, McCrackin said.

A state fire investigator was on the scene Wednesday night, McCrackin said, but the district had not heard back Thursday afternoon about a cause of the fire.

"We are appreciative to all the fire departments that showed up to help battle the blaze and keep things as contained as possible in a situation like that," he said.

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