Museum Fires And Other Disasters

Newark’s first Anson largely went up in smoke in 1971, only the wings & engines were saved.

Newark’s first Anson was the original Ekco testbed from Southend G-ALIH. The radar nose was removed at Southend and swapped with the original nose from its successor G-AGPG before the transfer to Newark where some kind soul torched it one night.
Not exactly a major fire but the paint store and workers hut at the Southend Museum burnt to the ground when I was a volunteer there. I arrived one day to find a scorched wooden floor where the building had stood a couple of days before. The fire damaged Dragonfly WG725 which had been stored in pieces beside the hut ever since arrival from Blackbushe. I think the Dragonfly eventually landed up as scrap as in those days the fire damage meant it was regarded as past restoration. Fortunately the fire didn’t reach our spare Sea Fury WJ244 which was lying dismantled next to the Dragonfly. The cause was traced to it being a very hot day and the paint store had poor ventilation. It was believed that the fumes from the paint and thinners eventually ignited causing the fire.
The Gemini at Southend was dismantled after an attack by vandals and the deterioration of Anson G-AGPG also started after it the fuselage fabric was slashed by vandals. I know that the cockpit of Beverley XB261 was also damaged. All 3 of these incidents actually took place during museum opening hours but the manager at the time had cut back on staff so the scum were never caught.

The Russian Air Force museum at Monino had a fire in 2005.

I visited in August of that year – a new hangar was being built and the curator told us (via Irina our guide) that a spark from a welders torch had set fire to the wooden hangar containing the early pre-WWI artifacts . They lost some irreplaceable documents and artifacts, but luckily, the fire was contained.

Ken

Link to 2003 thread on the same subject:
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/archive/index.php?t-16757.html

A glider I once owned a share in was destroyed in the Le Bourget fire: a 1942 AVIA 40P – it’s a very sad thing.

Another fire disaster

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21546&sid=5d84b9639fa463951093a1fd69aa4fe7

A museum (Uruguayan AF) in Montevideo was badly damaged by fire in 1997 (I think) with the loss of quite a few interesting aircraft.

I think that was a scum of the earth arson attack on the Valetta itself – bad enough.

01 you are indeed correct..the police wouldnt tell anyone who the scum were because they knew what would happen

Although not a museum fire the loss of the fibreglass replica Spitfire TE288 on 6 October 1984 is worth mentioning. It was mounted on a plinth at the entrance to Christchurch International Airport, New Zealand. Some F#%@wit set it alight. The late W/Cdr Johnny Checketts added his voice of disappointment at the time and lead a campaign to raise funds for a replacement which was mounted 1May 1985. It still does gate duty today.

Here it is …..

Keith Trillo’s hugely historic Avro Avian, which had previously been owned by several NZ aviation pioneers, was destroyed by a fire when the building he kept it in caught alight.

Thankfully very careless early media reports a few weeks ago stating that arsonists had set fire to and destroyed the hangar at MOTAT in Auckland was utterly wrong. A railway carriage was destroyed, but the aircraft collection was untouched.

Spitfire replica TE288

Although not a museum fire the loss of the fibreglass replica Spitfire TE288 on 6 October 1984 is worth mentioning. It was mounted on a plinth at the entrance to Christchurch International Airport, New Zealand. Some F#%@wit set it alight. The late W/Cdr Johnny Checketts added his voice of disappointment at the time and lead a campaign to raise funds for a replacement which was mounted 1May 1985. It still does gate duty today.

Aerial Mapping here lost what I believe was the oldest twin engined aircraft in commercial use , in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s , when their Monospar caught fire during refuelling . I think the cause was static electricity .

Yankee Air Museum – Willow Run, Michigan

Quoting from their website…

“On October 9, 2004, the Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run Airport suffered a terrible fire that destroyed the historic hangar housing the museum. Through the heroic efforts of a few members, the beautifully restored B-17, C-47 and B-25 aircraft were moved out of the building before the fire reached them, thus saving the heart of the collection. In addition, all the historic aircraft on display outside of the main building were untouched by the fire. The museum did, however, lose virtually all of the tooling, equipment and spare parts for all of the aircraft plus all of the office and display fixtures and equipment totaling well over $1,000,000 in replacement value. While thousands of irreplaceable artifacts, photos and books were also lost in the fire, the Volunteers at the museum are thankful that the aircraft collection remains largely intact. Only a small number of non-flyable aircraft that were in restoration inside the hanger were lost.”

Several aircraft at the New England Air Museum were damaged/destroyed in a tornado in 1979.

San Diego Aerospace Museum, 1978

1978 – Balboa Park – Aerospace Museum Fire
At 8:13 p.m. on February 22, 1978 the San Diego Fire Department responded to one of the city’s most spectacular fires. The Electric Building in Balboa Park burned to the ground in a third-alarm fire. The Electric Building housed the Aerospace Museum and contained vintage airplanes, mementos and artifacts. San Diego’s contributions to the history of aviation and manned flight–dating from the construction of Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis” by San Diego’s Ryan Aircraft Company, to rocks taken from the surface of the moon–were destroyed. A valiant attempt by the first and second alarm companies to rescue artifacts and display cases from the building was in vain as fire broke through the ceiling and drove them outside. The fire was caused by arson. There was little to be done to save the 62 year old structure, which was made of wood and contained no sprinkler system.

Today: http://www.aerospacemuseum.org/

–

Pretty sure that Le Bourget had a huge fire mid nineties

Already did!:)

Ah, so they did…. its been a long day.

How about a South American museum burnt after lamps used for filming set fire to some fabric, or a Sea Fury or two under restoation in the 80’s that were destroyed by fire.

Anyone want to mention Le Bourget? Quite a few airframes were lost in that fire.

Pretty sure that Le Bourget had a huge fire mid nineties

Already did!:)

Anyone want to mention Le Bourget? Quite a few airframes were lost in that fire.

Newark’s first Anson largely went up in smoke in 1971, only the wings & engines were saved.

and i suppose the coming belgium museum move counts?

There was a certain Lancaster Bomber that had the hangar roof fall in on it.:eek: But i suppose it wasn’t really in a museum

Don’t forget about the oter kind of hurricane. It’s a wonder Kermit hasn’t had his entire collection picked up & flung across the airfield….

As for the Breckenridge tornado the other day:
The Ezell(?) P38 got beat up a bit when the end of the hangar was torn off…