A blaze last month that caused an estimated $2 million in damage
to a 60-year-old building at the Hollister Municipal Airport was
accidental, fire investigators said.
Hollister Fire Marshal Mike O’Connor said that a report by
investigators with the Monterey Fire and Arson Investigation Team
concluded the Nov. 23 fire in Building 25 at the airport was
started by accident.
”
We believe that it was started by an overheated light bulb
hanging over some combustible material,
”
O’Connor said.
A blaze last month that caused an estimated $2 million in damage to a 60-year-old building at the Hollister Municipal Airport was accidental, fire investigators said.
Hollister Fire Marshal Mike O’Connor said that a report by investigators with the Monterey Fire and Arson Investigation Team concluded the Nov. 23 fire in Building 25 at the airport was started by accident.
“We believe that it was started by an overheated light bulb hanging over some combustible material,” O’Connor said.
The investigation team was made up of personnel from Seaside and North Monterey County and the California Department of Forestry.
O’Connor said the amount of damage caused by the fire had not been determined, but that preliminary estimates placed the damage at approximately $2 million, taking into account the building’s historic value and the property inside that was destroyed.
To protect the scene for investigators, the Hollister Public Works Department erected a fence around the burned-out remains of the building at 195 Astro Drive that served as a home, meeting place and storage facility to several local organizations and businesses.
The cause of the fire was a mystery to the building’s tenants who speculated at one point that it may have been the work of an arsonist.
All that is known for sure was the blaze started at around 9:23 p.m. Nov. 23, O’Connor said.
A pair of counselors who were locking the building after an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting saw smoke pouring through the roof just before it burst into flames. The counselors immediately called 911, O’Connor said.
It took about 30 firefighters from four departments – Hollister, San Benito County, San Juan Bautista and Gilroy – to contain the blaze, which burned for nearly three hours.
The wooden structure was quickly engulfed by flames throughout the center and rear sections before the roof collapsed at the middle.
The future of Building 25 is still in doubt. There is a proposal by the city of Hollister to bulldoze the remains and build a new structure that could house up to 13 fledgling businesses in a business “incubator,” where people looking to start a new business could move into the one of the 13 commercial spaces and receive support to help get their businesses up and running.
So far the Hollister City Council has only reviewed the proposed project and had not taken any action on the idea.
The building was constructed in 1943 as a bachelor officers quarters at what was then Naval Air Station Hollister.
The U.S. Navy acquired title to the airport, formerly known as Turner Field, by eminent domain in March 1941 and turned it into a training base in support of Alameda Naval Air Station. The base, commissioned on June 26, 1943, was designed to house 200 to 300 Navy personnel.
