FORKS – The old control tower at the Quillayute Airport, about 10 miles from Forks, was destroyed in a fire that started about 2:30 a.m. Sunday
“It is safe to say at this point, from what we have been told, that the fire is suspicious in nature,” mayor of Forks Nedra Reed said.
The airport, a former Naval Auxiliary Air Station built in the 1940s, is owned by the city.
The control tower is connected to the hanger, but Clallam County Fire District No. 6, with assistance from district No. 1 and the LaPush Fire Department, was able to quench the flames by daybreak, before it got to the hanger, said Dennis Johnson, fire commissioner for district No. 6.
“Three floors in the control tower were burned completely,” Johnson said.
“Luckily, we caught it early because someone spotted the smoke and we were able to get there fairly quickly.”
No electricity was hooked up to the building.
“It had been cut off a while ago so that was a good thing,” Johnson said.
The city will have an insurance investigator visit the site this week to evaluate the damage.
“What we have to do now is wait for that insurance investigator,” Reed said.
Clallam County Fire District No. 3, out of Sequim, also was dispatched to the scene because it has more experience investigating arson situations, Reed said.
“District No. 6 was fantastic,” Reed said.
“They saved the hanger.
“We want to thank them so much because otherwise – if they had not stopped it – if it had reached the hanger it would have been a disaster.
“All that fuel in there and the jets and planes could have just exploded.”
Jets and small planes are housed in the hanger, although Reed did not specify the specific number.
None of the planes was damaged by the fire, Johnson said.
The formal investigation will continue by the fire department and Clallam County Sheriff’s Department to determine the cause and origin of the fire.
