There was a major fire early yesterday morning in Tustin, CA…
The north blimp hangar at the old MCAS Tustin caught fire and burned.
h/t to GL for the photo.
During World War II, seventeen large hangars were built to house US Navy blimps. There were seven of these wooden hangars left: Moffett Field Hangars 2 and 3, Tustin North and South, all four in California, one in Tillamook, Oregon, and two in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Moffett Field also has Hangar 1, which is steel.
Fuller coverage HERE from the Orange County Register.
I served in all three of the hangars at Moffett Field, and have been to Tustin and Lakehurst. Folks these things are massive! Designed to hold three blimps each, they are around 1000 feet long, 200 feet tall, and 300 feet wide!
Sadly, one more piece of history is gone now, and as of this writing, there wasn’t any mention of the cause of the fire. I just hope it wasn’t arson…
If you ever get the chance to take a tour of one, do so. Until the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) was built at the Cape, the blimp hangars were the largest free standing structures in the world.
There were two in Tillamook, one burnt, and one houses the Tillamook Air Museum.
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/naval_air_station_tillamook_tillamook_air_museum/
South Weymouth NAS had a huge Zeppelin hangar but it was dismantled I believe.
I saw the ones at Moffett Field when I moved with my wife back to her hometown of Sunnyvale, CA after we met in college and married. I am from Los Angeles but she did not like it and my job took me to the Silicon Valley.
The Blue Angles had a air show based at Moffett Field so we were at the field. She had grew up at various naval bases as her Dad was a Naval Officer and she and each of her siblings were born at a different Naval base.
Those hangars are so huge. Having a fire in one does not sound normal and it sounds like arson. Having open government land in Orange County, CA that could be used for other things is a good motivation for many people.
I’ve been in the old one at Moffett, once, a long time ago.
Damn. Passing of an era. My dad fondly remembered blimps when he was in the Air Force, and got to ride on some.
An elegant way to fly. Maybe not the safest, but elegant.
Almost certainly arson…. eventually all will be destroyed so the land can be turned into houses and make select connected people richer. Those would be the people who should be questioned about this fire.
The makes me sad.
Grew up near Moffett Field, and saw the blimp hangers often driving down the highway. Managed to get a tour once: very impressive!
All- Thanks, and yes they are memorable!
Well that sucks! I’ve been in that hangar, and “BIG” barely begins to describe it.
When Moffett had airshows, one of the attractions was hot air balloon rides INSIDE one of those hangers! They were tethered, of course.
Normally, I would spend the day at home, on the roof, watching the Blue Angels fly past the house. Pretty awesome to see them have to pull up to clear the trees a couple blocks away, and to be looking into the cockpit as they were pulling g’s in a turn. I was tempted to wave, but figured that might be a distraction he didn’t need.
drjim- Yes, they are!
Will- I remember those… they could get up almost 100 feet IN the hangar! And yes, the Blues DO get low… LOL
1) Security there is less than stellar. We treated two people (teens) a few years back who had drunk-climbed inside, gotten up on the rickety roof, and were then too drunk to climb back down, necessitating rescue by fire helicopter teams coming in via helo-hoist.
2) So probably arson via homeless bums, cooking beans and meth, blocks away from $500K condos and $1M homes.
3) They filmed car races inside them, and you’ve seen this hangar in commercials and movies beyond counting.
Check out at least one of the Austin powers flicks, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6jQszSCeYo
4) And they can’t really develop most of the land, because those entire bases are multi-billion$$ EPA mega-hazmat sites. Just taking out the current buildings is breaking DoD’s piggybank for silly games, due to lead paint, asbestos, and a witch’s brew of POLs from 60 years’ use.
Developing the land may happen eventually, someday, but it will cost more than can ever be recouped, with a forward liability for any bad results for a century, and conservatively numbered in the 11-digit dollar range. If even one kid in the next 100 years gets leukemia in such a development, the civil suits would start at $100M.
OC developers would love a few hundred acres of prime real estate, but probably not so much with that literal poison pill.
As proof of the pudding, nearby hospitals just got blanket robo-called by the Tustin PD, warning all nearby residents of the hazmat exposure of continuing toxic smoldering smoke plumes from the site, and telling anyone getting the call to essentially either a) “RUN AWAY!” or b) seal themselves inside, and not go outside at all until the fire and smoke cease…eventually.
Yes, really.