Suspected cabin heater destroyed twin Comanche

BigBadLou said:
I see, the new invention called dual-engine single-engine airplane. Cool!!
And by "cabin heater", I assume they meant a small electric space heater inside the cabin, running without supervision?
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I suspect its a space heater left without supervision.. donno. sure hope its not a PMA-ed cabin heater
 
Be interesting to see,what the investigators find as the cause.
 
This is a fear of mine, some dope in my row of hangars burning them all down doing something stupid.
 
Paulie said:
This is a fear of mine, some dope in my row of hangars burning them all down doing something stupid.
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Can’t happen in my row of hangars. Everyone else stays at home. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in the row who ever goes to the airport. Well, except one homebuilder, but his appearances are only on beautiful days, so he would never require a heater.
 
Paulie said:
This is a fear of mine, some dope in my row of hangars burning them all down doing something stupid.
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Same here but hangars are normally constructed from non-flammable materials (sheet metal, sheet rock etc) specifically to prevent the fire from spreading. If the fire is hot enough to burn through the wall, it surely is hot enough to burn through the door/roof first and alert somebody outside who can call a fire truck.
Rarely does it happen that a hangar fire goes unnoticed and burns down the whole row.

Nonetheless, I share your fear. It would not be fun losing my airplane like that.

Now let's go fly!
 
NoHeat said:
Can’t happen in my row of hangars. Everyone else stays at home. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in the row who ever goes to the airport. Well, except one homebuilder, but his appearances are only on beautiful days, so he would never require a heater.
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I think my plane is the only one in my row that has moved in the last 10 years. Its sad.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I think my plane is the only one in my row that has moved in the last 10 years. Its sad.
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The airplane in the hangar just east of mine moved last week for the first time since I moved in - they pulled the wings and trailered it down to Ohio. The guy on the other side flies for business so it moves a lot more.
 
frfly172 said:
Be interesting to see,what the investigators find as the cause.
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Which investigators? I doubt that the FAA/NTSB will have anything to do with this one, since it wasn't moving, and didn't have an engine running.
 
I’m sure the local fire Dept. Has a competent investigator or two.
 
We were very lucky with this fire as a couple of people happened to go by the hangar at about the time the fire started.
 
BigBadLou said:
Same here but hangars are normally constructed from non-flammable materials (sheet metal, sheet rock etc) specifically to prevent the fire from spreading. If the fire is hot enough to burn through the wall, it surely is hot enough to burn through the door/roof first and alert somebody outside who can call a fire truck.
Rarely does it happen that a hangar fire goes unnoticed and burns down the whole row.

Nonetheless, I share your fear. It would not be fun losing my airplane like that.

Now let's go fly!
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There was a large metal RV that burned right next to a hanger full of air tractors, very little metal left, it actually burned. Planes were spared.
 
Petaluma, CA? Why would anyone need a cabin heater there, does it even get below freezing?
 
cowman said:
Petaluma, CA? Why would anyone need a cabin heater there, does it even get below freezing?
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Wunderground says that yes, it does sometimes dip below freezing there. But not by much. The low was 37 F that particular night in Petaluma.
 
Man, props to the firefighters. Opening the hangar doors on a burning plane full of 100LL...

Cajones.
 
BigBadLou said:
Same here but hangars are normally constructed from non-flammable materials (sheet metal, sheet rock etc) specifically to prevent the fire from spreading. If the fire is hot enough to burn through the wall, it surely is hot enough to burn through the door/roof first and alert somebody outside who can call a fire truck.
Rarely does it happen that a hangar fire goes unnoticed and burns down the whole row.

Nonetheless, I share your fear. It would not be fun losing my airplane like that.

Now let's go fly!
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Even with the firewalls, the smoke can cause a lot of damage to neighboring units. And that is if some enterprising socialite hangar tenants haven't removed some of the separating materials to be able to pass between hangars (not that I've ever seen that done).
 
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