Most Of Wyandotte Public School Bus Fleet Destroyed In Fire

Wyandotte school administrators closed schools Thursday and Friday after nearly a dozen school buses went up in flames.

The district said it looked at surveillance video and they believe the fire started on one of the buses in the middle and it spread to the rest of the fleet.

When he first heard the news, Superintendent Troy Gray thought, “How are we gonna bounce back from this? I mean, you're talking about 10 buses, and a truck and a building there, so, you're talking about over a million-dollar loss."

The fire department said only two or three buses are left of the Wyandotte fleet.

Several people said that this was a bad day for the town, and Gray said it's worse for the small town district's pocketbook.

"Anytime you lose buses like that, monetarily wise, it puts us in a bind as a district, especially in the time of the cuts we've got going on," he said.

The superintendent is already trying to replace the buses. Gray was on the phone all morning trying to get help, but it was other school districts that were calling him wanting to help.

"Miami Public Schools has loaned me three buses and Carl's Junction from Missouri loaned me two and Adair just loaned me one," he said.

As we walked out of the superintendent's office, Seneca called and offered their buses as well.

Gray is thankful everyone was so quick to help because he said the district can't operate without its buses.

"We bus around 80 percent of our kids, and so, if you can't bus them in, you're unable to teach them," he said.

After looking at the video, the district said they didn't see anyone near the buses at the time of the fire.

The fire marshal will keep investigating.