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Show Heavy Loss Suffered in Devastating Fire at Municipal Airport Hangar . i , ... . -;, ,,V ..... 1 I ? v ' ;; ; . - -h a y , vl FINAL STAGES. After a brief, but ex- the entire structure. Here, after beams tremely hot fire, the hangar at the Muni- had begun to fall, the sidewalls go up In cipal Airport began to calapse Monday af- a final burst of flame before collapsing, ternoon as the fire continued to ravage ----- i 5 . ' ' - W.,,s f fit rvt 5 , 1Z V . l r .v tjt W " sat 7: l--" ' ; j o ,s TOTAL FLAMES. Flames poured from every window and from the roof sending a column of black smoke thousands thou-sands of feet into the air at the Municipal Airport Monday. Mon-day. Fire was the largest property loss of the year for the Cedar City Volunteer Fire Department. A $100,000 blaze struck the Ce-dar Ce-dar City airport Monday afternoon, after-noon, destroying the main hang-ar, hang-ar, five small a iraft, two boats in storage, a geneiating unit and Innumerable tools In the workshop work-shop area. Fire alarm was turned In nar 3 p.m. Monday and although the Cedar City Volunteer fire department depart-ment responded to the call within with-in minutes, the blaze had taken hold of the hangar and In 45 minutes of high flames, the entire en-tire structure, including the planes and equipment, were in ashes. Efforts of the fire department were simply to save adjoining buildings and prevent the blaze from spreading as the flames lapped up the hangar n record time. According to Fire Chief Ross Glass, it was the most costly fire of the year In Cedar City. Until the blaze total fire loss for the community has been held to near $6,000. he indicated. Blaze was. well under way before be-fore the alarm sounded Monday afternoon and It was discovered by about three people simultaneously. simultan-eously. Claude Urie, head of the street department for the city, who was working on the runways run-ways at the airport apparently first noticed the blaze. As he headed to the terminal offices staff members of the Federal Aviation Administration discovered discov-ered the blaze and turned in the alarm. The blaze was also spotted at about the same time by men at the U. P. Stockyards, but a telephone tele-phone was not available to them. As the flames, which apparent ly started in the shop at the south end of the building, were lapping up the sides and onto the roof Urle and four employees employ-ees of the FAA Including Bill Joslyn, Charles Wyrick, A. J. Christensen and Harry Proctor, attempted to take planes from the burning Hangar. First to be taken from the hangar was Cessna Cess-na Skylane here on demonstration demonstra-tion from the Southwest Skyways in Ogden. Next was a Beachcraft Bonanza owned by the Cedar Aero Cluh. As the quintet returned to the hangar to attempt to save additional addi-tional aircraft the flame, hit an L-19 owned by the National Guard, the tank exploded and the entire hangar was filled with . flames. Left In the hangar to go up ; with th- blaze was the national ' Guard plane and additional equipment valued at $20,000; a twin Cessua owned by the fly-ing fly-ing club, valued at $1000; a Cess- ; na 140 owned by Gene Crosby, : an employee of the Forest Serv-ice, Serv-ice, valued at $3000; a 21-ft Cabin Ca-bin cruiser owned by Warren ' Adams, valued at $3000; a 19-ft s boat kit already assembled, and ' owned by Ray Doescher and valued val-ued at over $500; an Ercoupe, al- ) so belonging to Adams, valued at $1500, and a Piper 23, with ; crop dusting equipment owned , by Royce Knight, and valued at $2000. . In addition to these specific ' items there were tools belonging to Adams, the fly..g club and Individuals. Adams suffered by far the highest Individual loss. Airport hangar, according to ' Mayor Arnold Anderson, Is under lease to Royce Knight and was being administered by Mr. Adams for the Parkair Flying , Service. Actual origin of the fire has ; not yet been determined, but It is believed that It started In the shop area. The hangar was Insured by the city In the amount of $30,000. Another occupant of the hangar hang-ar was the Cessna 171 belong, ing to Guy C. Tucker. This plane was out at the time, however, ', having been taken out the day before for a trip to Las Vegas, The Tucker aircraft returned to the Cedar City airport Just after the initial blaze had subsided. |