A large fire that broke out Monday night at a municipal airport hangar in central Edmonton, destroying the historic resource, is being investigated as suspicious.
The 7,400-square-metre wood-framed Hangar 11 was situated between the NAIT campus and the Blatchford neighbourhood, alongside what used to be Edmonton’s City Centre Airport.
The City of Edmonton said the fire began just before 7 p.m. and was upgraded to a second-alarm response half an hour later.
Edmonton Fire Rescue Services said the inside of the building was already engulfed in flames when crews arrived so firefighters could only attack from the outside.
“It’s a very huge fire load in a hangar like this,” said district chief Jessica Lamer.
The city said 11 crews, or about 44 firefighters, were working on the fire as heavy smoke and flames poured out of the hangar.
“It’s obviously wood construction, so with the high winds it got the fire going really quickly so we called in more resources to try and keep the fire under control, mainly keep it to the area — we were worried about exposures with this type of weather.”
Edmonton experienced strong winds all day long and Lamer said the gusts fanned the flames. Ash and other charred debris was seen on the ground at Kingsway Mall nearby.
“The wind is very challenging. A lot of the debris was blown up from the roof and landed in the area.
“Luckily the grounds around it had been recently excavated, so there was not a lot of grass or we probably would have had a much more serious event.”
The flames and thick, black smoke could be seen from several kilometres away. Closer to the scene near 109th Street and 117th Avenue, ash and smoke was raining down on the ground.
A crowd gathered to watch the historic building go up in flames. People could be seen watching from the top of the NAIT parkade.
Edmonton police at the scene were telling bystanders in the area, as well as news crews, to move away over fears the fumes could be toxic.
The fire spread to the grass between the hangar and the NAIT main campus, as well as the Brig. James Curry Jefferson Armoury beside the hangar.
That facility is home to the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, a reserve infantry unit of the Canadian Forces.
Firefighters were seen on the roof the Armoury, trying to get the upper hand on the situation. Lamer said crews got that roof fire under control fairly quickly.
By 8:30 p.m., most of the building had been consumed by the flames and by time the sun set, the building was no more.
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The cause of the fire and a damage estimate is not yet known, but on Tuesday the Edmonton Police Service said it was being investigating as suspicious.
On Tuesday morning, fire crews continued to put out hot spots and smoke could still be seen rising from the ashes of the hangar.
The fire was declared under control as of about 9:15 a.m. but the blaze remained “active,” as of an 11 a.m. update from the city.
No injuries were reported, the city said. LRT service on the Metro Line was temporarily suspended to the new NAIT/Blatchford Market station and the city said trains were turning around at Kingsway/Royal Alex station.
Historic Hangar 11 is no more
Ryan Lee is the curator of the Alberta Aviation Museum, located in another hangar on the opposite side of the former airport lands along Kingsway.
He heard about the fire and rushed over Monday night to make sure drifting cinders didn’t cause problems at the museum.
“As soon as I saw the fire — which was maybe 20 minutes after it started — I could tell that there was no saving Hangar 11,” Lee said.
“It’s a wooden structure, there’s no sprinkler system in it, so it’s a pretty catastrophic loss.”
Hangar 11 was a municipal historic resource that was constructed in 1942 by the U.S. Air Force to support the Second World War efforts.
Once the United States entered the war, the city said the country built a series of airfields. Edmonton’s airfield at Blatchford Field became the headquarters of the Alaskan Wing and Air Transport Command.
“Hangar 11 is a pretty important structure for the history of aviation in Edmonton,” Lee said. “That part of the airport was an American Air Force/Army base during the war — our side was the Royal Canadian Air Force base. So there was a real sense of cooperation in the war.”
The city said Hangar 11 played a significant role in the Lend-Lease program that had the U.S. provide military equipment to the allies before and after it joined the war.
The city said the field was, at times, the busiest airfield in the world with nearly 900 flights arriving each day.
“During the war, Edmonton became one of the most busy airports in the world because of the American effort to send planes to the Soviet Union. So Hangar 11 played a pretty significant role in that,” Lee said.
Hangar 11 was believed to be the last remaining building of its kind in Western Canada.
“It is heartbreaking,” Coun. Tim Cartmell said on Tuesday. “To lose that building and its place in history is just awful.”
The airport itself closed in 2013 after operating for more than 80 years and in the decade since, the land has been under redevelopment into a sustainable neighbourhood.
The hangar was declared a historic resource in 2022, when the owners began receiving a $5-million grant to assist with rehabilitation of the building.
Edmonton-based T3 Group bought the hangar fours years before that with a vision of transforming it into a place with housing, stores and restaurants. (On Tuesday, the website was no longer active.)
Cartmell said the devastation is two-fold: not just the loss of a historic building, but also the potential of the hangar being repurposed.
“They had a project in mind, they had a dream in mind and a vision in mind. There were people that were going to be employed for the next couple of years, turning that building into something else.
“They’ve lost their project that has an economic impact to those contracting companies, to those construction companies, to those tradespeople.”
Global News has reached out to T3 Group and has not yet received answers on the most recent status of the project. Contractors previously linked to the renewal project now say they are no longer involved.
NAIT limits access Tuesday due to poor air quality
NAIT asked all students and non-essential staff to stay away from main campus on Tuesday out of an abundance of caution.
In a news release issued shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday, the college said “poor air quality has been detected in buildings throughout NAIT’s main campus.”
Classes were moved online where possible and NAIT said alternate arrangements would be made to allow students to complete exams.
NAIT said air quality assessments were ongoing on Tuesday afternoon.
“We are working to assess the air quality of different buildings as quickly and safely as possible,” the institution tweeted in a social media post on X (formerly known as Twitter.)
“Limiting access to buildings also reduces odour from further entering the buildings, as the HVAC system is currently shut down while air quality is being assessed.
“At this time, we are minimizing the opening and closing of doors to prevent odors and particles from further entering the buildings.”
For the latest updates, visit the NAIT website.
— With files from Caley Gibson and Phil Heidenreich, Global News
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