Huge fire wrecks historic blimp hangar where Star Trek and Pearl Harbor were filmed | US News
A devastating early morning fire destroyed a World War II era airship hangar in California.
A three-alarm fire was reported around 1.00am on Tuesday morning at the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, California, the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) said.
The former air base was built in 1942 during World War II, and was decommissioned in 1999. The blaze was sparked inside one of two massive hangars built to house military blimps.
Ground crews were seen pumping water onto the structure, while helicopters dropped more from directly overhead.
‘Due to the dynamic nature of the fire, and the imminent danger of collapse, we have determined the most operationally sound method is to allow the structure to collapse,’ the OCFA said in an update later on Tuesday morning.
The towering hangars are some of the largest wooden structures ever built. The hangars are 17-stories high, and extend about 1,000 feet in length by 300 feet in width.
Since the base’s closure, the hangars have also been used in multiple film and television productions, including JAG, The X-Files, Austin Powers, Pearl Harbor, and Star Trek, according to the city.
By Tuesday afternoon, firefighters continued to battle the blaze from afar.
‘There’s literally nothing we can do about it at this point,’ Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy said at a press conference. ‘We certainly aren’t going to put firefighters inside the hangar where it’s going to collapse when there’s no value at risk.’
Video posted by the agency shows large, smoldering chunks of the wooden structure collapsing in on itself.
The fire chief said it could take days or even weeks to fully extinguish the blaze.
‘It’s a sad day for the city of Tustin and all of Orange County,’ Fennessy said. ‘But we are fortunate that no injuries have been reported and we are in a position to extinguish the blaze without putting firefighters at risk.’
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