McMinnville Fire Department responded to a structure fire in a storage facility that contained aircraft parts and future aircraft museum displays.
Units from five mutual aid departments assisted with the response. Firefighters received the call at 7:41 p.m. Thursday. They found a 600' by 100' retrofitted agricultural building fully involved.
It was located between two other similar facilities that were also used for storage.
All efforts were aimed at preventing the spread of the fire to the adjacent buildings. Several times throughout the fire there were ruptures of 55 gallon drums that caused fireballs that could be seen from miles away.
These explosions hindered the fire department efforts to extinguish the fire.
McMinnville firefighters remained on scene through the night until the Yamhill County Fire Investigation Team returned Friday morning to conduct the fire investigation.
The loss is estimated to be more than $20M.
