The brutal winter weather conditions across Northeast Ohio are bringing some challenges to Canton.
A fire that started inside the city's service center over the weekend burned through several plow trucks.
Canton City Street Superintendent Steve Trzcinski said this is the first time he's ever received a call about a fire destroying the city's plow trucks in his 20 plus years on the job.
“It's kind of one of those things, your kind of shocked that it happened, but thankful that no one got hurt,” he said.
Trzcinski said he got the call Saturday night that three trucks went up in flames. Two of them are damaged to the point of no repair. One of them is being fixed, and should be up and running soon.
The city uses these trucks to plow and salt the roads. Thankfully, the damaged trucks were not among the newer ones, which cost about $160,000 each, according to the City's Purchasing Department.
“The good news is these were two of her older vehicles, so as bad as the situation was, it could've been a whole lot worse,” said John Highman, Canton City Director of Purchasing.
The the lights and roof of the garage inside the service center were also damaged by the fire. Luckily, the damage to the building is covered by insurance.
However, city officials said they are still working out how to cover the cost of the damaged vehicles.
“That would require Canton City Council, law departments, there's a lot of moving parts,” said Highman.
To deal with the shortage of trucks short-term, the city is reaching out to local vendors to see what trucks they have in stock. In the meantime, the city said there may be a 15 to 20-minute delay in plowing the roads.
“I just have to rearrange some of the routes, but everything will be covered,” said Trzcinski.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The City of Canton already has several new plow trucks in order for 2018.
