UPDATED 9:40 a.m.

ST. JOSEPH — Fire investigators are leaning toward an electrical problem as the cause of an early-evening fire Thursday that destroyed the bus barn at St. Joseph-Ogden High School.

No one was hurt, said school Superintendent Jim Acklin, but the fire did about $1 million in damage to the metal pole building and its contents.

Firefighters were called to the bus barn in the 300 block of North Main Street, St. Joseph, about 6 p.m.

“I saw smoke rolling out of the center portion where the concession stand area is,” Acklin said. “At that point it was thick black smoke. In the next 50 minutes it went from a smoky mess to flames probably 40 to 50 feet in the air.”

Acklin said at least five buses, a driver’s education car, two mowers, two tractors, a truck and assorted tools and equipment were lost.

"We're suspecting an electrical issue," said Russell Chism, chief of the St. Joseph-Stanton Fire Protection District. Chism was joined by four other area fire investigators Friday morning in getting a closer look inside the remains of the metal pole building.

"We're pulling conduit out to try to make an exact determination," added St. Joseph-Stanton Assistant Fire Chief Brian Buss.

Buss said the last firefighters  - 10 area departments responded under a mutual aid compact - cleared the scene about 11:30 p.m. Buss said he returned about 12:30 a.m. Friday and put out some small spot fires.

"We came back about 6:30 a.m. (Friday) and had one hot spot. We got a village backhoe in here and put that out," Buss said.

The fire investigators were at the barn Friday morning waiting for representatives of the school district's insurance company to arrive. Chism said they would share their findings with the insurance experts, but would defer to them in citing a definite cause of the blaze.

Two women inside the bus barn when the fire started got out safely.

Deb Simmons of St. Joseph was one of them. She was pricing merchandise for an upcoming golf outing when the fire began.

"At first, we thought it was dust. We didn't know it was smoke," Simmons said. "We saw a bunch of dust swirling inside and got choked up. We closed the doors thinking it was just dust. Then it got black and kind of crazy, and we started throwing merchandise out the window.

"Black smoke started coming out the doors and out the windows and we couldn't get out fast enough."

The smoke and fire spread within minutes, according to Buss. Because of its intensity, he directed firefighters to also spray water on the nearby high school to the east to keep the fire from spreading to its roof. Smoke from the fire could be seen from east Urbana.

"It was pretty much a surround-and-drown operation," Buss said. "Once we had fire coming through the roof, I pulled every person out. I didn't want anybody inside."

Buss said the fire was under control by 7:50 p.m.