A fire early Tuesday morning at a Highway Patrol maintenance facility will impact the Patrol’s ability to do its job, according to the Patrol’s Superintendent.
Colonel Ron Replogle says the 22,400 square foot facility in Jefferson City is used for vehicle maintenance and equipping. He says the building is a total loss as are at least 8 of the 14 vehicles inside.
“It is our main maintenance facility for the entire state for our fleet of vehicles. With the merger of the Water Patrol, we have a fleet of close to 1,500 vehicles now,” says Replogle. “It’s going to be a big loss for us. It’s going to take us a little time to get operational here again.” He says some operations will be moved to other buildings until the structure can be rebuilt.
The state is moving quickly to develop an estimate of losses to give to lawmakers, who still haven’t approved the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and could potentially include rebuilding costs in it.
Replogle says of an early estimate, “$3.8-million dollars just for the structure itself. That doesn’t include the cars and the other equipment that was lost in the fire. It’s probably going to end up being somewhere between a $4-million and $5-million dollar total loss.”
No one was injured in the fire. Its cause is still under investigation but Replogle says it is not considered suspicious.
