Ozark Regional Transit began running a full schedule of bus service two weeks after an early morning fire devastated most of its fleet.
On Jan. 10, during routine maintenance at the transit’s yard in Springdale, a fire sparked and swiftly engulfed 20 of ORT’s 24 buses. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the result of the destruction was immediately apparent.
ORT runs 14 routes a day every weekday, and for many of its riders, a transit bus is the only means of transportation for school, work or life’s other errands. In 2016, Ozark Regional Transit averaged more than 1,200 riders a day, which is approximately 337,000 passengers for the year.
While the buses were still smoldering, ORT Executive Director Joel Gardner was receiving phone calls from riders about how they were going to get to their job or to their classes.
“The phone calls that moved me the most, that put a fire in my butt, were some of these college-aged young adults who were saying, ‘Listen, if you can’t get me back and forth to the community college, I’m going to have to drop out,’” Gardner said. “Ozark Regional Transit is their only form of transportation to get up to that Bentonville campus. That is why we do what we do. I’ll be damned if I’m the cause of some kid dropping out of college.”
The fire happened on a Tuesday, and Gardner had no choice but to cancel all fixed-route services on Wednesday and Thursday. ORT has four buses that survived the flames, and the University of Arkansas’ Razorback Transit pitched in with buses to run ORT’s Fayetteville routes on the Friday and Monday before classes resumed at UA.
Razorback Transit wasn’t the only other transportation company to rally to Ozark Regional Transit’s aid. Gardner said that almost overnight, he had received bus loans from Greenland Gateway Church, Southeast Arkansas Transit of Pine Bluff and Open Avenues of Rogers.
Wichita Transit of Wichita, Kansas, sent eight buses, and Bus CU Transit of Springfield, Missouri, lent another three. Some of the buses were temporary loans of just a couple of days while others are long-term offerings.
Regardless, the outpouring of help from other transit agencies allowed ORT to get up and running on a limited basis just days after the fire.
“The transit brotherhood just came together and were like, ‘What do you need? What do you need?’” Gardner said. “It was so cool. It was like ‘Whoa, we can actually put something out on the road.’”
Returning to a full schedule so soon after the fire should allow Ozark Regional Transit’s 75 employees to avoid missing any significant paychecks, Gardner said. In the hours after the fire, several senior drivers volunteered to donate vacation or sick days to newer employees to make sure they got paid.
“The way these guys rallied around each other was phenomenal,” Gardner said. “I didn’t expect anything less from them. It happened so fast and so seamlessly without anybody asking anybody to do anything special.”
Gardner said he didn’t know how long it would take for Ozark Regional Transit to get a full complement of its own buses to replace the ones destroyed in the fire. The buses were insured and the continuing investigation has ruled out arson.
The fire happened as the maintenance crew prepared the buses for the next day’s routes.
After washing and fueling the buses, maintenance workers ran four bus engines at a time to troubleshoot any possible problem.
Gardner said on-site cameras caught the sparking of the fire, but when the first bus went up, its aluminum and plastic components caused black smoke to obscure the rest of the blaze. Fortunately, no one on the maintenance crew was injured.
Once Ozark Regional Transit’s insurance pays for replacements, Gardner said it could still take up to a year to order and receive new buses. Gardner said the buses were a multimillion-dollar loss since they mostly ranged in price from $70,000 to $200,000; the most expensive bus cost more than $500,000, Gardner said.
“It was one of those things I went, ‘Gah,’” Gardner said, pretending to choke. “I forgot it was that expensive.”
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