Hangar fire at Spirit of St Louis (KSUS)

bcool said:
...maybe spontaneous combustion?
Click to expand...

My bet would be a refrigerator or air compressor or other electrical device on the floor. Most people don't realize why the building codes require that elect outlets in hazardous locations be installed well above the floor. 36" IIRC...maybe 42".

This is because many fumes are heavier than air and will settle to the floor. Gas definitely does. So if a plane starts leaking fuel and a compressor that's sitting on the floor kicks on....kaboom is the likely outcome.

Fumes that are lighter than air tend to dissipate and be less of a problem, especially in leaky hangars.

My air compressor is sitting on the floor but it's never plugged in unless I'm using it. My beer frig is a dorm sized unit and is sitting on a shelf about 36" aff. Extension cords are never left lying around plugged in with the female end laying on the floor. If I have to leave something plugged in for an extended time (like a battery charger or pre-heater) and it's on an extension cord, all plug connections are kept up off the floor...like sitting in a 5 gal bucket on a chair or a 5 gal bucket sitting atop an upside down 5 gal bucket.

People say you're an idiot if you fuel your plane inside of a hangar, and I don't disagree with that. But you're a bigger idiot if you have air compressors, refrigerators or other electrical devices sitting in your hangar, on the floor, plugged in 24/7.
 
doesn't even have to be a big device. i had a cheapo cordless drill setting on the bench the other day, looked up and found it smoking, really smoking. grabbed it, pulled the battery off and threw it outside on the pavement before it burst into flames. the switch shorted out on it. could have been a bad thing if it had just just been sitting on the bench with no one around. now I remove all batteries from cordless tools before I leave.

bob
 
I couldn't figure out how that kind of fire would happen in those hangars, they're just metal support beams and metal sheeting. That hangar had an added upper-level framed in with a short of office space/lounge. Lots of flammable material right there, and I'm betting some sort of short circuit or a space heater left on...
 
Rats and matches,lightning,most lickley over heated electrical devices.
 
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