Pike-Delta-York school district maintenance garage hit by fire

A fire in Fulton County caused smoke damage to one Pike-Delta-York school bus and damaged the district’s maintenance garage.

DELTA, Ohio — Fire heavily damaged the Pike-Delta-York school district’s maintenance garage Tuesday afternoon, but caused no injuries and only smoke damage to one bus.

Officers at the Delta police station next door smelled smoke from the bus garage about 2:15 p.m. and investigated, said Jay LeFevre, superintendent of schools. They found fire in an area between the garage’s two repair bays that spread up a wall and into the roof, the superintendent said. He said he suspected the cause of the fire was electrical.

The building was unoccupied at the time, with the district’s mechanic working at Delta High School, Mr. LeFevre said. The one bus was in the easterly section of the repair bays and could not be moved out during the fire, but the flames burned away from it, only coating it with soot.

Firefighters from Swanton, Lyons, and Wauseon were on the scene until about 4:30 p.m.

Besides damage to the building, Mr. LeFevre said, the fire destroyed janitorial supplies stored in part of the structure.

Bus service for Pike-Delta-York students, whose classes resume Monday, will not be affected by the fire, but the district’s maintenance operations will have to be reaccommodated, the superintendent said.

“We’ll have to find a temporary solution,” he said. He would not provide a damage estimate late Thursday, saying the building’s condition had yet to be assessed.