Hangar Fire !!!
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:45 pm
After cancelling a DA40 trip to Illinois, Minnesota and Colorado due to thunderstorm activity, we jumped on United and made the trip to Illinois on Friday. I get a call on Sunday from my hangar owner that there was a fire Saturday in my T-hangar, which a hangar neighbor put out. Of course my plane was sitting in same hangar
I stewed for the next day over what caused it and whether the plane was part of the cause and/or was damaged. Neither turned out to be the case. What happened was caused by major t-storms that plagued the area (Central Oregon) Friday and Saturday which caused quite a bit of local flooding. This included a whole bunch of this flooding that made its way into the hangars beneath the doors and walls, flooding the floors a bit.
As it happens I had an extension cord plugged in, connected to my air compressor. The connector was sitting on the floor. Water found its way into the extension cord receptacles and caused a high-impedance short, which set the plastic end piece of that extension cord aflame and melted the compressor air hose. No other damage occurred. The breaker did not trip, as I understand it. In any case it didn't trip quickly enough.
The upshot is I've now cleaned up the hangar so that no connectors lie on the hangar floor, and eliminated one of the two extension cords altogether. We also need to see about what appears to be the lack of GFI protection for the hangar circuits.
A relatively cheap lesson learned.
I stewed for the next day over what caused it and whether the plane was part of the cause and/or was damaged. Neither turned out to be the case. What happened was caused by major t-storms that plagued the area (Central Oregon) Friday and Saturday which caused quite a bit of local flooding. This included a whole bunch of this flooding that made its way into the hangars beneath the doors and walls, flooding the floors a bit.
As it happens I had an extension cord plugged in, connected to my air compressor. The connector was sitting on the floor. Water found its way into the extension cord receptacles and caused a high-impedance short, which set the plastic end piece of that extension cord aflame and melted the compressor air hose. No other damage occurred. The breaker did not trip, as I understand it. In any case it didn't trip quickly enough.
The upshot is I've now cleaned up the hangar so that no connectors lie on the hangar floor, and eliminated one of the two extension cords altogether. We also need to see about what appears to be the lack of GFI protection for the hangar circuits.
A relatively cheap lesson learned.