VERO BEACH — Florida Fire Marshal’s Office investigators are at the Vero Beach Municipal Airport looking into a fire that broke out in a hangar over the weekend.
Lt. Tony Stafford said Tuesday afternoon that the detective assigned to the case had returned to the airport this morning to continue his investigation prior to clearing the scene.
Multiple investigators have been called in to work the fire scene at 2703 Flight Safety Drive.
According to Vero Beach Municipal Airport Director Eric Menger, a hangar and a plane were severely damaged around midnight Sunday. Airport staff, he said, received a call from Indian River County Fire Rescue around 1 a.m. Sept. 5.
Menger said both bays in a T Hangar, a long steel building, suffered damage as did an adjoining pilot meeting room.
One bay sustained severe damage, the airport director said, while the neighboring bay and nearby pilot meeting room suffered smoke damage.
He could not estimate how much damage, financially, had been caused.
“It won’t be cheap,” Menger said of fixing the hangar.
The hangar is owned by the City of Vero Beach but is leased to two private tenants. Menger declined to identify them, but said the hangar is used only for the storage of aircraft.
An official cause for the blaze was not immediately known.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
