Yankee Air Museum Burns to the Ground

[blackdog~ 0]

Quote[/b] ]Massive fire destroys Yankee Air Museum

No cause identified; artifacts, 2 airplanes lost

Sunday, October 10, 2004

BY EMMA JACKSON

News Staff Reporters

The Yankee Air Museum, a popular air history attraction at the Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, burned to the ground Saturday evening when a fast-moving fire swept through the building, destroying priceless aviation artifacts and two airplanes.

Three of the museum's most prized aircraft - a C-47, B-25D and B-17G restored to flying condition - were saved because the crew of the B-25 had just returned from a flight and was able to move the planes out of the burning hangar.

The fire was reported at about 6:30 p.m. and soon had engulfed the 50,000-square-foot hangar, which was built in 1941 by Henry Ford for the production of B-24 Liberator bombers. No one was injured and no cause had been determined Saturday night.

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Jon Stevens, president of the Yankee Air Museum,said the hangar and its contents were a total loss. He estimated the loss at $5 million to $7 million, but said that was a preliminary estimate.

Smoke from the fire could be seen for at least 10 miles and soon traffic on nearby Ecorse Road slowed to a crawl as spectators gathered to watch. Fire departments from Van Buren Township and six other departments responded but could do nothing to stop the blaze. By 8 p.m. only the concrete slab and a few burning pillars remained of the hangar.

An outdoor display of about 20 historic planes next to the hangar was not damaged by the fire.

The 23-year-old museum, which hosted about 100,000 visitors a year, was filled with historic aviation displays, including uniforms, equipment and medals from World War I and World War II, along with a library and displays on Korea, Vietnam, Women in Aviation, and the B-24 Liberator Bomber.

One of the planes destroyed in the hangar fire was on loan from a Dayton, Ohio, air museum; the other was a rare "Bronco" airplane that was days away from being fully restored.

Brian Higgins, marketing director and board member of the Yankee Air Museum, was celebrating his birthday in Plymouth when he got the call about the fire.

"I've aged a little bit more tonight," said Higgins from the site at mid-evening. "The reaction of the (museum) members out here is that we're sad but we'll come back, better than ever."

He said the museum was in the midst of a $55 million capital campaign to build about a dozen buildings, including a new hangar, buildings for storage and restoration of the original 1941 hangar that has housed the museum since the Yankee Air Museum was started by volunteers as a non-profit organization in 1981.

The museum has about 3,000 members from around the country, according to its Web site, and depends on thousands of hours from volunteers to operate the facility. "Volunteers restore, maintain and fly the aircraft, administer the daily business of the museum, keep the facilities maintained, publish periodic publications and conduct fund-raising events and give museum tours," according to the museum's Web site.

Stevens, the museum president, was attending a social event in Auburn Hills when he got a call from one of the B-25 air craft crew members that the hangar was on fire. His first reaction was, "Oh, my God!"

"In some ways we'll start over, but starting over with a lot more than the original founders," said Stevens. "I have too much sweat equity in that place, as do a lot of other good people. We'll figure a way to rebuild it."

Stevens said the crew of the B-25 had just returned from an aerial fall color tour early Saturday evening when they caught a whiff of smoke. Their quick actions to pull the three functioning planes out of the hangar saved the aircraft, which are flown around the country to air shows during the year and as a fund-raiser by selling rides to the public.

"God bless the people who helped get those air crafts out," said Higgins. "They are heroes."

In addition to Van Buren, firefighters from Belleville, Romulus, Pittsfield Township, Ypsilanti Township, Sumpter Township and the airport fought the fire.

At dusk, the hangar was still fully engulfed in flames, which lighted the black, billowing clouds from beneath with an orange glow.

The skeletal frame of the hangar stood for a while before finally collapsing by 7:45 p.m. and the ghostly outline of vintage World War II planes parked near the hangar stood out against the fire.

"We were out in the yard messing around, and my husband said 'Oh my God, Kim, look up at the sky!"' said Kim Ion, who lives on Ecorse Road a three houses away from the airport property. She and her son Matt stood in a neighbor's yard and watched the fire burn as the sky grew darker.

The spectacle slowed traffic to a near-halt on Ecorse and other nearby roads. Motorists pulled off on the shoulder to point and stare. Some fished cameras and video cameras from their cars and others talked on cell phones, pointing and staring. Police lit flares to help guide the crawling traffic.

Sam Pfeiffer of Farmington Hills got a unique view of the fire, as he flew in to the airport from a visit in Traverse City. He was able to land safely around 7 p.m., but said the air space was closed after he landed.

Tanina Foster of Riverview shook her head as she watched the fire.

"The museum," she said. "That's what's heartbreaking."

http://www.mlive.com/news....010.xml

[hellfish6 7]

What an awful loss.

[Hit_Sqd_Maximus 0]

What 2 aircraft were lost? At least they got the b17 and b25 out.

[Balschoiw 0]

Not that big loss compared to this one

'Soul of Germany' is devastated by blaze

Quote[/b] ]Hundreds of thousands of priceless antique books were feared destroyed or badly damaged yesterday by a fire that swept through a 16th century German palace.

The Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, central Germany, home to some of the country's most precious volumes including the world's largest collection of Faust by the national playwright, Goethe, was engulfed by flames which destroyed large parts of the building including the roof.

Cultural experts were surveying the extent of the disaster last night after it emerged that some literary treasures had been rescued due largely to the bravery and quick-wittedness of library staff.

A 1534 Bible belonging to Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, as well as travel notes by the naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, were salvaged along with around 50,000 other books as staff, firemen and Weimar citizens formed a human chain to carry the treasures - books, paintings and sculptures - to safety.

Some staff were in tears as firemen were prevented from re-entering the inferno as the flames took hold of the library, listed as a Unesco World Heritage site.

Christina Weiss, Germany's culture minister, who hurried to the scene yesterday morning, could not hide her despair. "A piece of the world's heritage has been lost forever," she said, close to tears.

"The literary memory of Germany has suffered severe damage," she added, pledging emergency funds of Å2.7 million.

Among the losses of the collection, which consisted of a million books, were up to 10,000 original editions of Shakespeare's works, first editions of Schiller's dramas, part of the collection of the first Weimar librarian, Daniel Schurzfleisch, and the sheet music collection of Duchess Anna Amalia.

Most of the books were unique and therefore could not be insured, Michael Knoche, the head of the library, said.

It was thought that most damage was caused not by the flames but by smoke and water. Wet books that were collected in skips were placed in deep freeze later to prevent further disintegration, a technique practised during the Central European floods in the summer of 2002.

Investigators at the scene of the charred remains of the library, housed in the former palace residence of the 18th century Duchess Anna Amalia, were examining claims that the fire was started in the attic by an electrical fault.

It had spread through the building before reaching the Rococo Hall. It took more than 300 firemen about three hours to bring the blaze under control. Local people looked on in despair as they watched the building burn.

It happened a while ago. People were spontanously crowding at the library and helping, conser4ving the books. I´ve seen the reports on TV where they carried wet or halfburnt books around like wounded children.

Indeed that´s a big cultural loss.

Hats of for the 2 planes anyway.

[Architekt 0]

Jeez, you'd think with a book colllection like that they would

have been stored a bit more securely.

Like with one of those airtight systems that seals of the room completely

and pumps a gas that removes all oxygen in the room in event of fire.

And with a Martin Luther Bible? That just seems irresponsible, especially when your'e talking about national treasures.

So what planes were lost?

[blackdog~ 0]

If you had actually read the article you would have read that one of the planes was an OV-10. I'll leave it up to you to read over it again and find out the other ones.

A library burning? Pah, who reads books anyway.

[Balschoiw 0]

If there were no books we would not be here. In multiple ways.

Who flies old planes anyway

I guess readers outweight you blackdog

[theavonlady 2]

A library burning? Pah, who reads books anyway.

And Shakespeare, to top it all off. Bah! I handed in my high school homework long ago.

And thank heavens for monarch notes anyway!

[theavonlady 2]

If there were no books we would not be here. In multiple ways.

Spoken like a true German!

[Balschoiw 0]

Haha !

Well...brainwashed ?

Quote[/b] ]brought up in a religious environment

Me also...was so religious that I insisted on running around naked at partys and supporting my female target to do the same for Adam and Eve reasons

I needed no book, for the plug and the socket thing

But at least it´s nice to know that authors were able to write about the plug and socket thing in a so much more complicated way

And without Gutenberg we wouldn´t be here.

[Architekt 0]

Quote[/b] ]A clinic spokesman said: "When we asked them how often they had had sex, they looked blank, and said: "What do you mean?".

Oh dear

[blackdog~ 0]

Thanks for bringing my thread completely offtopic.

... 'closed'

[Rudedog 0]

Pablo lives about a mile or so from it and says it smells pretty bad. He also said they the flew the B-17 out earlier today, but for what reason, I do not know.

I've been there a couple of times and know that they must have lost alot of historical items seeing they only were able to get 3 birds out.