Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-03
Flames Sweep Plant of Po-
tomac Flying Service-Loss
Set at 100000
FIRE APPARATUS MIRES
IN MUD OF RIVER BANK
New Monoplane, Delivered Yester.
day, Was to Have Made Maiden
Flight Today.

Nearly 100000 worth of property,
including eight airplanes valued at $751;
ITO, was destroyed by fire of unde-
termined origin that swept the hangar
OF the Potomac Flying Service, Inc,
at Hoover Field early today.
Discovered in far corner Of the big
hangar by F. E. Yoakum, night watch
man, the blaze licked against the in
fiammable fabric of an airplane close
by and almost instantly the building
was transformed into roaring furnace
as plane after plane and the gasoline
in their tanks were ignited.
Daylight found a smoldering hangar
with the four brick walls standing and
housing twisted mass Of wreckace.
Firemen from Washington, Arlington
County, Jefferson District and Ballston
succeeded In saving about $4,000 worth
OF engines and maintenance equipment
IN the engineering shop, which adioins
the hangar and is part Of the building.
Nothing IN this section was damaged.
Sends in Alarms.
When Yoakum discovered the fire he
rushed to the Office of the flying serv-
Ice and telephoned for fire apparatus
Daniel Cave, an employe of the service,
saw the blaze and called for assistance.
No. Is engine company from WASH
tngton was the first to reach the scene.
There were no fireplugs In the vicinity
so they went to the river and began
pumping. A few minutes later the Vir-
ginfa companies appeared Seeing the
task OF saving the hangar hopeless, they
concentrated on saving the engineering
shop. About an hour and a half later
the blaze had burned itself out
Several pieces Of apparatus became
mired in the mud on the river bank. As
| sistance was sought from the city, and
one by one the heavy engines and hose
carriers were pulled out.
The planes destroyed all of them yir-
tually new and with little time in the
/ air. we're three Fairchild cabin mono-
| planes. two Travelair open cockpit BIZ
| planes and three Berliner open cockpit
| monoplanes. One of the Berliner mono
planes was delivered to the field yester-
| day morning and was to have made It's
maiden flight today. 1t was valued al
$3.490.
| An Planes Insured.
! An the planes DESTROYED. with the ex-
| ception of the new Berliner moi1cplane
and Travelair which IS the property
| or Sidney Shannon. student at the
| field, who lives in Fredericksburg, Va,
were owned by the Flying Service. An
were covered by insurance against FIRE
In addition to the planes and hangar
destroyed the latter being valued al
$2l 600, maintenance equipment to the
value OF $4,000 and q tractor worth
$500 were lost.
1t was announced by A. II. Nash. sec
retary OF the Flying Service. that the
company would be open for business
Saturday. when two Travalair biplanes
are due to arrive from the factory at
Wichita, Kans.
Since the field was taken over by the
Potomac organization 30,979 passengers
have been carried on flights over WASH
ington. A total of 1S0 passengers was
carried up until dusk yesterday. There
are 42 students undergoing training at
the field. Nash said. and in addition TO
these activities croSs-country flying and
aerial photography activities are main
tanned