School buses, garage destroyed by fire in Braham

BRAHAM, Minn. – Several school buses were destroyed in a Tuesday morning fire in Isanti County, sending flames and black smoke flying out.

The Braham Bus Company lost at least three of its buses, as well as the garage that housed them.

"In small communities, there's history and that building's been here a long time," said Ken Gagner, the Braham School District superintendent.

The fire created uncertainty about getting kids home from school.

"You have that initial shock of the event and then people get down and get to work," Gagner said.

That includes the bus company, which scrambled and managed to quickly find three replacement buses to avoid stranding any students.  

Going forward, Gagner says the district needs to find additional buses for after-school activities.

"Things like this don't happen very often," said Ross Benzen, the Braham Fire Chief. "When they do, it's always hard for everybody because we're a small town. Everybody knows everybody."

The district's now also urgently looking for a place buses can stay overnight. In the meantime, they'll be parked in the high school parking lot, a concern as the temperature starts to drop again.

"Hopefully they start up in the morning," Gagner said. "That's a lot of windows to scrape."

No one was injured in the fire. Officials are now investigating what started it.

A paramedic looked at one of the firefighters on the scene for possible exhaustion.