The Melun-Villaroche airfield (Google Maps screenshot)
A hangar fire at the Melun-Villaroche airfield near Paris destroyed two privately-owned de Havilland Vampires Saturday morning, according to local media and sources.
The fire reportedly started in one hangar, totally destroying the aircraft inside, before spreading to the neighbouring hangar and severely damaging another Vampire. Some sixty firefighters were engaged to contain and stop the fire, and nobody was hurt.
The second aircraft is “certainly unsalvageable” according to Didier Chable, president of the local Association des mécaniciens pilotes d’avions anciens (AMPAA).
Sources (in French, with pictures):
2 comments
Fire did not spread to second hangar. Deux Vampires were housed in the burnt hangar. F-AZOP was destroyed. F-AZIK was extracted by firemen, but had been “cooking” too long – paint bubbled everywhere, conpy melted… so woner does not feel like fixing it to fly it again.
Author
Thanks for these precisions !