Big Blimp Building Burns Down

A huge, humpbacked World War II-era hangar, one of the largest in the world, burned to the ground early Thursday, destroying an airship and damaging parts of several expensive surveillance blimps.

Flames from the blimp hangar - which measured 1,080 feet long, 300 feet wide and the 180 feet high - were visible 40 miles away.

“I’m numb,” said Edgar Lambert, one of 50 employees of TCOM L.P. and Westinghouse Airships, which leased the hangar. No one was inside at the time, and no injuries were reported.

Damage was expected to top $100 million.

The landmark was one of nine structures built by the Navy in 1942 and 1943 that are listed in The Guinness Book of Records under “largest wooden hangars.” The remaining ones include: two each at Tillamook, Ore.; Moffett Field and Santa Ana, Calif., and Lakehurst, N.J.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.