2003

Copied from the Peoria Journal Star March 5, 2003

Dave Haney

FIRE DESTOYS SCHOOL BUS

Students evacuated from Wilder-Waite

Dunlap—Susie Stear’s kindergarten class has just finished celebrating a student’s birthday and was taking a break when fire broke out in the school’s bus garage. “We were taking our milk break when one of the students, Anna, said, “Look, there’s a fire,” Stear said. “It was pretty scary.

Thinking the 5-year-old had spotted some smoke far off in the distance, the teacher leisurely wandered to the window until she saw flames shooting from the top of the metal structure.

One was injured in the 10:15 a.m. fire, located in the rear parking lot of Wilder-Waite School in rural Dunlap, just off of Alta Road, but the school’s bus garage and one bus suffered damage. Another bus was destroyed.

The school’s nearly 300 students were evacuated after a bus backed into a propane space heater, sparking the blaze, school and fire officials said.

School employees quickly moved at least one bus parked in the structure at the first signs of the fire.

Hearing of the employees’ efforts to save one of the buses, Dunlap Fire Chief Wayne Peplow disagreed with the move.

“I think what they did was probably pretty foolish. It’s a dangerous thing to do. A bus can be replaced—it’s not worth a life,” Peplow said.

The fire chief said his initial concerns upon arriving at the scene were a propane tank in the rear of the building and a gas pump on the north side, in addition to leaking fuel from the school bus. But the firefighters were able to contain and extinguish the blaze in about half-hour.

The smoke could be seen several miles away as firefighters battled the blaze.

Assistant School Superintendent John Mangers said one bus on destroyed by the fire and another was singed, which amounted to about $100,000 in damage.

Managers said the school would continue with a full day of classes, and arrangements were being made Tuesday morning to transport students home after school later that day.

Peplow estimated the structure, which as several open stalls on one end and a two-stall garage where mechanical work is don at the other about $40,000 in damage.

“I think some of the kids thought that bus drivers lived in there-some of the younger ones were crying,” said one teacher, who asked not to be named.

Copied from PeoriaTimes-Observer March 12, 2003

DeWayne Bartels

Stubborn Fire Claims Bus, Building.

When Larry Eads, custodian at Wilder-Waite School, arrived for work March 4, it seemed like a normal day.

Within hours of staring work, the day was anything but normal, as Eads found himself pulling school busses out of a burning building. The blaze was serious enough to force the evacuation of about 200 students from the school.

The Dunlap School District’s bus maintenance man was backing a bus into the bus barn behind the school shortly after 10 a.m. when he struck an overhead propane gas powered

heater. The impact ruptured a propane line and set the bus and uilding on fire.

Eads, seeing the incident ran to the bus barn to help pull out the valuable busses. “There was quit a bit of flames and smoke,” Eads said, as Dunlap firefighters fought the blaze.

“I know we didn’t have a lot of time. I just felt like I should go in and save the district as much money as I could. I didn’t feel I was in danger.”

John Mangers, assistant superintendent of Dunlap Schools, said Eads’ work was appreciated.

“I think what he did says a lot about our employees and our district that they feel that way,” Manger.

“He’s a conscientious guy. He’d do what it takes to save as much as possible.

Dunlap fire fighters were able to save at least half the building. One school bus, valued at $55,000 was a total loss. Another bus sustained some damage to the rear. Mangers estimated the value of the building and contents, tentatively, at $100,000.