CAROL BRYANT
Courtesy of The Grand Island Independent
A three-alarm fire destroyed the Great Lakes Aviation maintenance hangar and two planes inside worth $8 million at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport Tuesday night.
Independent/Gerik Parmele
Fire consumes a hangar at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport
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The fire destroyed two Great Lakes Raytheon/Beech 1900D 19-passenger planes inside the hangar. Each plane is worth $4 million to $4.5 million, Great Lakes President Doug Voss said in 1998. Airport Manager Bill Stovall had no damage estimate and said there were no injuries.
"About 6:55 p.m., one of our maintenance crew discovered smoke coming from Great Lakes' maintenance hangar," Stovall said.
The maintenance employee alerted people inside the hangar to get out, began attempting to extinguish the fire and contacted authorities.
Personnel from the Grand Island Fire Department, Grand Island Rural Fire Department, Grand Island Police Department, Hall County Sheriff's Department and Nebraska State Patrol were at the scene.
The Hall County Airport Authority owns the hangar, which is approximately a quarter mile north of the Grand Island terminal. The hangar was on the east side of approximately the 3700 block of Sky Park Road and just east of a Federal Express office.
Deputy State Fire Marshal Chuck Hoffman of Grand Island had no damage estimate Tuesday night and said the cause of the fire had not been determned.
The maintenance center is one of three that Great Lakes has, he said. Great Lakes Aviation is based in Cheyenne, Wyo., and has three flights daily from the Grand Island airport west to Denver.
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