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Images from WSOC-TVAn early-morning fire broke out at the Greenville Downtown Airport (GMU) in South Carolina, partially collapsing a hangar roof and destroying four planes.
The Greenville City Fire Department was called to a fire at the Greenville Downtown Airport on Monday at 3:52 a.m., arriving at the scene to find a hangar roof partially collapsed, according to Fox News Carolina. Airport officials told WSPA News that a bystander reported the fire on the southeast side of the airport. Firefighters told WSPA the structure was engulfed in flames and smoke when they arrived. Crews worked with the city's Public Works Department to put out hot spots and tear down the remainder of the roof to get a better look inside to determine what caused the fire.
"The city's Public Works is out here helping to take the metal off the sides and the roof so our investigators can actually get in and see what happened," GCFD Chief Brian Horton told WSPA.
The fire was put out and the crews then waited at the scene for heavy machinery to arrive in order to remove the damaged roof and stabilize the structure. The crews used drones to survey the hangar and began working to determine the amount of damage from the fire. An airport spokesperson told Fox that four planes were destroyed in the fire but operations would continue as normal. Officials told local news outlets that four aircraft were destroyed in the fire and some were crushed.
"We hate losing any type of property," Horton said to WSPA. "No one was hurt, thank goodness. No one was injured. So, that's a good thing but it's a loss of property, a loss of revenue and business that we're always worried about."RELATED STORY:Historic WWII-era hangar destroyed in fire
This hangar fire came one week after the historic WWII-era wooden hangar at the Tustin Air Base in Southern California was destroyed in a three-alarm fire. More than 70 firefighters and multiple helicopters worked to put out the fire, ultimately choosing to allow the 17-story structure to collapse due to the massive size and struggle to contain the flames.
The fire chief told WSOC-TV that once the roof of the hangar was removed they would begin investigating the cause of the fire.