Tustin blimp hangar fire

[old iron]

Hello all,

The two Tustin blimp hangars were built - entirely of wood - in 1942, housed blimps in WWII and military helicopters later.

The North hangar burned today, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC0-PlTLZi4

Very sad loss. Sounds like there might have been some modernish blimps within. We can be grateful that this was not turned into a aircraft museum...

[sandiego89]

Ow wow, sad. Not the first one to go up like that. They are real tinderboxes I am afraid with that wood lattice, plywood, etc.

[JohnB]

If it sounds familiar....
Back in 1992, A 1072 foot long blimp hangar at Tillamook, Oregon was lost in a fire.

It was filled with something like 7000 tons of hay.
The adjacent hangar which housed the local air museum (and I think the Jack Erickson collection?... it was before my time) was saved.

[bdk]

Typically fire suppression is not installed in these types of hangars. Municipalities don't want to suffer the expense. The history just isn't that important to protect. I'll bet something the politicians really wanted will spring up to replace this.

[marine air]

Okay , here's the deal. I think I've seen it flying in and out of John Wayne International. The real estate is so expensive in that area that we never overnight in the Falcon jet. I've seen it with the large chain link fence around it wondering when it was going to "accidentally" burn down. They don't get tornados, hurricanes or very much lightning in the L.A. basin. It was a fascinating piece of architecture but the developers can make hundreds of millions of dollars developing that piece of real estate. It's surprising it lasted as long as it did.
The Nashville airport ost one of their pre-WW II hangars to a mysterious fire a number of years ago. The old 1930's era terminal was razed so singer Alan Jackson could build a new hangar for his Falcon jet. He's in poor health and doesn't fly very much anymore. Developers know how to take it back out of the historic overlays, protective zoning and de register real estate from the Historic Registry. Money trumps History almost every time.

[old iron]

the "after"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh1re1TmKw4

[Chris Brame]

Hmm . How soon do you think the PlaneTags will be available?

[bdk]

I recall one of those hangars was used for storing actual blimps (Goodyear, Fuji, etc.) for maintenance over the past few years. I think Huell Howser visited there on one of his shows. Was it this one or the other?

There was a plan to make one of these a museum at one time, you could store your antique military vehicles there for free. That never came to fruition however.

I recall seeing a vintage car race at the airport in the '90s.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-08-ls-32555-story.html
https://www.motortrend.com/news/motor-trend-thunder-historic-road-races-2/