NOWATA, Okla. — Nearly a month and a half since Nowata's Public Works building burned to the ground, they are slowly getting back on their feet — thanks to surrounding communities.
They believe the blaze was due to an electrical fire. It took the entire structure to the ground, leaving almost everything inside a total loss.
Local News
TOTAL LOSS: Nowata Public Works building burns down
One of their main concerns was how they would replace their vehicles.
2 News spoke with City Manager Melanie Ward in the hours after the Jan. 14 fire. She said many of the trucks were new to the department, purchased with ARPA money in the last few years.
They didn't know what was insured and what they'd be able to get back.
Surrounding communities championed Nowata's need, and took all of that worry away.
2 News was in Nowata the day of the fire:
The Village donated two pickups, Cherokee Nation donated one pick up, the city of Broken Arrow gave Nowata a mini excavator and West Siloam Springs donated a sewer machine.
The remainder of their vehicles were covered by insurance.
“A lot of these areas are not, are about the size of us or smaller so it’s been great," said Public Works Director Roger Smith.
Smith was recovering from a surgery at the time of the fire, so he was not there in the hours after the fire. He said his foreman called to let him know when he learned of the fire.
“Two o’clock in the morning… it’s one of those things you don’t go back to sleep," he said. "I was sort of heartbroken because I never figured that would happen."
He's been with the public works department for 21 years and has lived in Nowata his whole life.
Smith said that having the support of Oklahomans in surrounding communities has taken so much weight off his shoulders. Especially because the rest of their equipment, he said, won't be near as easy to replace.
"We probably had over two hundred thousand dollars worth of contents, and the contents insurance on it wasn’t near that," said Smith. "And so there’s a lot of stuff that just won’t be replaced right now because we won’t have the money to.”
The lot still sits littered with charred vehicles and burnt remnants of what used to be. Smith and his team are getting ready to clear out all the debris and make room for construction.
He said they are opening it up to bids to get an estimate on what a rebuild will cost them. Smith predicts they won't be into a new building until late summer to fall 2025.
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