A team of fire investigators have been sifting through the
charred remains of a building at the Hollister Airport and are
expected to have a cause for the blaze by the end of the week.
A team of fire investigators have been sifting through the charred remains of a building at the Hollister Airport and are expected to have a cause for the blaze by the end of the week.
Hollister Fire Marshal Mike O’Connor said the specially trained group of fire detectives with the Monterey Fire and Arson Investigation Team have been examining the debris and the site of Saturday night’s fire for the past two days.
“We should have a determination of the cause by the end of the week,” O’Connor said.
In the meantime, the Hollister Public Works Department began erecting a fence around the burned-out remains of the nearly 60-year-old building at 195 Astro Drive which served as a home, storage facility and meeting room to several organizations and businesses, including Soar Hollister, the Hollister Lions Club, McFadden Tax Service and the Hollister Airmen’s Association.
The fence, which should be completed by this afternoon, is intended to prevent any unauthorized people from entering the building and possibly getting hurt, O’Connor said.
Several of the building’s tenants were given a few minutes Monday to go into the building and retrieve whatever they could. However, with a portion of the roof barely intact, firefighters did not want to take chances by letting occupants stay inside too long.
Some of the debris from the fire was taken to the city yard so that investigators could spread it out and take a better look at the items, which include everything from pieces of burned tables to badly singed documents.
Although investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the fire may have been the work of an arsonist, O’Connor said “We have no proof that it was.”
He said it’s important that people refrain from believing rumors as to the cause of the fire. All that’s known for sure is that the blaze started at around 9:23 p.m. Saturday, O’Connor said.
A pair of counselors who were locking up the building following an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, saw smoke come pouring through the roof just before the building burst into flames. The counselors immediately called 911, O’Connor said.
The old, wooden structure was quickly engulfed by flames throughout its center and rear sections before the roof collapsed at the middle.
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.
