Massive fire destroys WW II-era hangar in Edmonton

Flames and smoke engulfed Edmonton’s Second World Conflict-era Hangar 11 because the historic constructing north of downtown was destroyed by hearth Monday night time.

Situated at 109th Avenue and 117th Avenue, the constructing was on the location of town’s former municipal airport.  

The big constructing at Edmonton’s Blatchford improvement, positioned simply west of the Northern Alberta Institute of Know-how, was one of many final surviving buildings of its variety. 

The 7,400-square-metre hangar was constructed of wooden and in-built partnership with the U.S. navy in 1942 as a part of a crucial channel to ship plane and conflict supplies to allied forces on the japanese entrance in the course of the Second World Conflict. 

Ryan Lee, curator on the neighbouring Alberta Aviation Museum, watched a good portion of the constructing collapse Monday night time in disbelief.

“It is fully gutted, there may be completely no saving it and I simply watched it collapse about 5 minutes in the past,” Lee informed CBC Information. “It is fairly scary. There’s little or no authentic buildings left on the [former] airport right here.

“It is fairly gutting to see it go.”

A spokesperson for Edmonton Hearth Rescue Providers stated the decision for the hearth got here in round 6:56 p.m. There have been a complete of 11 crews on scene Monday night time, with heavy smoke and flames seen all through the night. No accidents had been reported.

As of Tuesday morning, the hearth had not but been known as below management and crews remained on the scene

The hearth, together with trigger and the entire value of the injury prompted, stays below investigation. 

“There’s loads of historical past in that constructing that we’re not going to get again,”  Lee stated.

Resulting from smoke from the hearth, NAIT has briefly closed its essential campus. In a press release, faculty officers stated poor air high quality has been detected in its buildings and all college students and non-essential employees are requested to keep away from the principle campus on Tuesday. 

As soon as the smoke dissipates, air high quality assessments might be carried out to make sure courses can safely resume, faculty officers stated in a press release Tuesday. 

Jordon Ashley, who lives close by, stated he noticed loads of heavy smoke round 8 p.m. Monday and got here to see what was taking place

“[It’s] the destruction of a historic constructing, actually, I want I might’ve visited it myself however I did not have the possibility,” he stated.

The airport was closed in 2013 for residential redevelopment and there have been discussions that the constructing was going to be repurposed by a non-public firm.  

A web site for the redevelopment describes it as “one in every of Edmonton’s most enjoyable up and coming new improvement initiatives. A constructing wealthy in historical past, preserved, restored and modernized, to supply a world-class constructing the place business and residential come collectively to construct group.”

Hangar 11 lately turned a chosen Municipal Heritage Useful resource.

The historic hangar was included on the Nationwide Belief for Canada’s 2017 checklist of the nation’s 10 most endangered buildings. 

Transit service was briefly cancelled to the brand new NAIT-Blatchford Market LRT station in the course of the hearth, however has since resumed common service.