Preserving what remains of Edmonton’s aviation history

A piece of Edmonton’s history is gone forever, following a fire that ripped through a historic aircraft hangar built during World War 2. Because of that tragedy, the Alberta Aviation Museum is doing what it can to preserve what’s left.

Similar to Hangar 11 — which burnt to the ground on Monday — Hangar 14, which is home to the Alberta Aviation Museum was built in the same year, and with the same material.

“It went up rather quickly being an 80-year-old building made entirely out of wood, and it was just gone within an hour, there was no saving it, there was no coming back,” explained Jean Lauzon, the executive director of the Alberta Aviation Museum.

“When you look over at where hangar 11 was, it is no longer. The history is gone.”

A key difference between the two buildings, the museum has a full fire suppression system in place with sprinklers lining the ceiling in hopes of slowing down any damage of a fire, should one occur.

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“Unlike hangar 11, hangar 14, in order for the museum and the tenant member groups that are in here, before we could move in in ‘92, the fire marshall then had deemed that we had to have a full fire suppression system put into the building because of having the public and people coming through,” explained Lauzon.

“The museum does have a full wet fire suppression system in the hangar in all of the rooms. So I’m hoping that would slow down any issue of a fire, but regardless, the damage. Even if the fire suppression system was to work, the amount of water that would be coming down on all of the artifacts and the displays, the damage would still be quite heavy.”

Bernie Sheppard, a former Royal Canadian Air Force Safety Inspector, watched as fire crews put out the remaining fire Tuesday. He played a role in getting the building designated a provincial historical site. Devastated by the loss, he wishes more was done to prevent this from happening.

“It’s something that’s going to take time to get over because it could have been prevented easily. At least we have the fire control system in our aviation museum,” said Sheppard.

Though in the early stages, the Alberta Aviation Museum is looking at ways to ramp up the preservation of the building and its artifacts — considering options like fire retardant paint or fire-resistant roofing.

“Once these items are gone, you can’t make them back, or bring them back so it’s imperative that we preserve them,” said Lauzon.