Fire Destroys Dozens of School Buses, Bus Terminal

MERTON, Wis. — Nearly three dozen school buses and a bus terminal here were destroyed in a fire on Sunday, and the location is being considered a crime scene, officials said.

At 12:58 p.m., the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department and the Merton Community Fire Department arrived at a Dousman Transport terminal and found the school buses to be fully engulfed in flames, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Department. The school bus company's terminal was also destroyed.

Dousman Transport told Lake Country Now that it used buses from its other terminals and borrowed buses from Nelson’s Bus Service and Kobussen Buses so it could continue to transport students.

Dousman Transport President Rob Nelson told the newspaper in an emailed statement that the support the company has received from several other bus companies, local businesses, and individuals “is truly humbling.”

A total of about 34 school buses were destroyed by the fire, according to Lake Country Now.

A Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman told FOX6Now on Monday that the bus terminal will be considered a crime scene until investigators determine the cause of the fire. Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were also on scene with Sheriff’s Department investigators on Monday.

View a photo of the burned buses and the scene posted by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on its Facebook page below.