Fire causes $500,000 in damage to buses at Aspiro in Green Bay

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - The non-profit organization Aspiro is looking into new options for transportation after an overnight fire destroyed four of its five buses.

Crews arrived just after 1:00 in the morning in the parking lot of Aspiro, which is on Green Bay’s west side. Four buses were destroyed -- three reduced to charred metal frames. A fifth bus, which has smoke damage and broken windows, may be salvageable.

Firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to a nearby building, and the fire was out in 10 minutes. Damage is estimated at $500,000.

The Green Bay Metro Fire Department sent a fire marshal to investigate the cause of the fire. Investigators told us it’s too early to tell if the fire is suspicious.

“On a daily basis, these buses help transport our clients to jobs, then also to community outings throughout the day,” Nicole Hoffmann, Aspiro’s vice president of development, said.

Aspiro provides a variety of services to people with disabilities, including job training, adult day services, and respite care, and about 50 clients rely on the buses every day to get to work.

“The loss of these buses will impact those clients’ jobs and our ability to transport them. And the impact will be felt for a long time. It’s going to take a long time to be able to replace something like this, so this is a huge loss for our agency,” Hoffmann said.

A GoFundMe page has been established to help the non-profit.

Hoffmann said Aspiro was working on a contingency plan for the days ahead.

“Their jobs are a great source of pride for them. And also, any kind of change in their routine will have an impact on them, so today especially they’ll be in a little bit of shock. We’ll also take this time to be able to talk with them and just try to get them through it,” Hoffmann said.

This isn’t the first time Aspiro had issues with its buses. Aspiro was the victim of several catalytic converter thefts from its buses last year. A local company stepped up to get the buses wrapped with an anti-theft device.

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