09/01/2026
At approximately 1:30 this morning, local first responders were alerted to a fire at Lenoir City Schools’ Maintenance and Transportation Annex. We thank the Lenoir City Fire Department, Lenoir City Police, and Lenoir City Utilities for responding quickly to extinguish the fire, ensuring surrounding buildings were not affected, and immediately beginning their investigation. Lenoir City Police Investigators, working alongside the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, have released preliminary findings suggesting the fire originated from a mechanical issue in the engine compartment of one bus, which caused it to spread to other buses. Their work communicating response efforts while determining the cause allowed the district to focus on developing a plan to get students back in classrooms as soon as possible, and we appreciate their efforts.
We have secured the buses necessary to resume classes tomorrow, Wednesday, September 2nd. All city buses will have their correct numbers and will run at their usual times.
We are grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support from school districts and bus providers from across Tennessee. We are especially grateful to Gray Bus Lines, Costner Bus Lines, and Crossroads Bus Lines for allowing us to use their buses as we work to replace those destroyed in this incident.
