Dan Cullman
New member
People have been burning up airplanes and hangars from the very beginning. Cigarettes, welding torches and nitrate dope were probably involved in many fires.
For the third time in my 50 years in aviation, I have had a friend lose everything in such a fire. Every one of these disasters had it's start in defueling an airplane. A spark from static electricity initiated each fire.
I now believe this defueling process is one of the most dangerous situation in all of aviation. You can never be too careful grounding EVERYTHING to prevent a spark and preventing spills and leakage. I have a collection of fire extinguishers in every building, but they won't do much good in a fully developed fuel fire.
What a shame to see an all steel 25 foot high building with bifold door, holding a freshly restored Luscombe, a J3, two vintage cars and a lifetime collection of tools and equipment reduced to an 8 foot pile of rubble and ashes.....a crying shame.
Dan
For the third time in my 50 years in aviation, I have had a friend lose everything in such a fire. Every one of these disasters had it's start in defueling an airplane. A spark from static electricity initiated each fire.
I now believe this defueling process is one of the most dangerous situation in all of aviation. You can never be too careful grounding EVERYTHING to prevent a spark and preventing spills and leakage. I have a collection of fire extinguishers in every building, but they won't do much good in a fully developed fuel fire.
What a shame to see an all steel 25 foot high building with bifold door, holding a freshly restored Luscombe, a J3, two vintage cars and a lifetime collection of tools and equipment reduced to an 8 foot pile of rubble and ashes.....a crying shame.
Dan