VIDEO: Blaze decimates Arkansas transit agency's bus fleet

The remains of destroyed buses are visible Tuesday under the bus canopy at Ozark Regional Transit in Springdale. Twenty buses were destroyed in a fire that started around 1 a.m.
The remains of destroyed buses are visible Tuesday under the bus canopy at Ozark Regional Transit in Springdale. Twenty buses were destroyed in a fire that started around 1 a.m.

SPRINGDALE -- A fire early Tuesday at Ozark Regional Transit destroyed 20 buses, depleting the fleet and impairing the transit agency's ability to maintain bus routes in the near future, Executive Director Joel Gardner said.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette

Ozark Regional Transit staff members survey the remains of some of the 20 buses that were destroyed in a fire early Tuesday at the transit agency’s shop in Springdale. The fire severely depleted the agency’s fleet, which covers a four-county area of Northwest Arkansas.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette

Buses destroyed by a late night fire are visible Tuesday at Ozark Regional Transit. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

"I've got a whole world of buses that are down to their bumpers on the ground because of the fire," Gardner said. "It's carnage."

A ticket to ride

While Ozark Regional Transit works to restore public transportation services, reduced routes similar to those during inclement weather routes will be the norm, according to officials. As assets are restored, more services and amenities will be brought back online.

January bus passes will be honored during February.

Source: Ozark Regional Transit

Gardner said the cause of the fire has not been determined. A fire marshal and a forensic inspector for the Arkansas Municipal League, which insures the transit agency, were doing a walk-through Tuesday afternoon and were expected to begin their investigation in earnest this morning, Gardner said.

Gardner said he's focused on getting routes back into service and beginning the recovery process for the agency, which covers a four-county area in Northwest Arkansas.

"We've got two vehicles in service right now out of the entire fleet," Gardner said.

One bus was shielded from the fire by another bus, and the other undamaged vehicle was not at the site when the fire happened. Those two buses were used Tuesday to run Route 65 in Springdale and the new Commuter Express route from Fayetteville to Bentonville.

Four other buses were not damaged in the fire at 2423 E. Robinson Ave. Two were undergoing maintenance at the time of the fire and will be put into service soon. Two others were undergoing heavy maintenance at an off-site shop.

All minivans survived the fire and remain in service. Those vehicles provide much of the agency's on-demand paratransit service.

The agency will accommodate as many passengers as possible with the depleted fleet, but all services are subject to interruption, rescheduling or cancellation, officials said.

"Right now, we're definitely running our ... Route 65 in Springdale because there's just a whole bunch of people that need to get to work and rely on us heavily for that. That's an easy one to operate," Gardner said Tuesday. "We ran the commuter route this morning, and that's all we've got today."

Gardner said he hopes to have the other undamaged buses back in service by Friday, bringing his working fleet to six.

Razorback Transit, which covers the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and neighboring areas, is lending Ozark Regional Transit a couple of buses, as is the public transit provider in Pine Bluff, Gardner said.

"We'll start assigning them to routes throughout the community and get us back up and running again," Gardner said. "Maybe by the end of next week, if not a little sooner, we can have 10 of our routes running and maybe within two weeks have all 14 running."

Gardner said offers to lend buses have come from around Arkansas and nearby states. Gardner said he's looking into the logistics of which of those buses he can get to Northwest Arkansas the quickest and easiest before sending people to retrieve them.

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"I've gotten calls from Wichita [Kan.] down to Louisiana. I just fielded a call from Fort Worth, Texas, saying, hey, we've got buses if you want to come get 'em," Gardner said. "It's been just amazing to watch the transit community come together on this one. It's humbling."

Officials from Rock Region Metro, the transit agency for Pulaski County, have been in contact with Ozark Regional since early Tuesday, but they say Rock Region isn't in a position to provide buses quite yet.

"Unfortunately, we don't have vehicles to lend to ORT at this time," Becca Green, the spokesman for Rock Region Metro, said in an email. "We are hoping to assist later in the year when our new vehicles are delivered."

Gardner said employees working at the shop on East Robinson Avenue noticed the fire and called for help. A fire engine arrived about 1:20 a.m. Tuesday, Fire Department Division Chief Jim Vaughan said.

The crew arrived and saw two buses in flames under a large carport where all the vehicles are parked in two rows close together, Vaughan said. The vehicles' skins are made of fiberglass, which allows them to burn and melt relatively easily, he said.

The wind was blowing at least 20 mph, and the flames spread along the fleet. "The wind was just screaming across their parking lot, really feeding it," Vaughan said.

Five fire engines and one ladder unit were at the scene until 5 a.m., Vaughan said.

Vaughan said he's been with the department for 30 years and that Tuesday's fire was "the first one I've seen like it."

"This is a big deal that is a catastrophic thing for people's public transportation," he added.

Information for this article was contributed by Emma Pettit of Arkansas Online and Noel Oman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Metro on 01/11/2017

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