Firefighters work to control a blaze at the North Hangar at the former Marine Corps Air Station Tustin on Nov. 7, 2023. (Jeff Gritchen/Orange County Register)
The Navy has pumped over $123 million into the clean-up of a World War II anti-submarine blimp hangar in Southern California destroyed by fire a year ago.
Workers for the Navy have hauled away over 395 tons of twisted and charred steel from the wreckage at the former Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, along with 77 tons of toxic waste and 1,180 tons of other debris, according to a tally by the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command.
David Bennett, a Navy spokesman for the project, said work will “continue through the first quarter of 2025.”
Fire broke out Nov. 7, 2023, at one of two landmark World War II blimp hangars, towering historic landmarks in the heart of Orange County, home to 3.2 million people. Plumes of smoke and air-borne debris settled across a wide swath of suburban housing tracts, schools and parks.
After initially battling the blaze from the ground and helicopters, fire officials removed responders because of concerns they could be killed or injured if the 17-story, 1,000-foot-long, 300-foot-wide hangar collapsed.
Built with two-million board feet of Oregon Douglas fir trees, the hangar smoldered, then repeatedly flared over the next 24 days, before it was declared officially extinguished on Dec. 1, 2023.
The South Hangar, a virtual twin just a few hundred feet away, was untouched by the blaze.
As of the end of December 2024, the Navy has spent $20 million on direct demolition and clearance of the North Hangar site, while it has paid the City of Tustin that sits next to the hangars, a total of $103.3 million in six installments.
Late last summer, Tustin officials said the city’s costs could top $150 million before the recovery was over.
The money would come from the Navy, which was deemed the responsible party for damages from the fire by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The cause of the fire remains unknown.
The Navy’s webpage for the clean-up gives a 15-month timeline from the beginning of debris removal on July 8 until work is completed. Ten federal, state and city agencies, ranging from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Southern California Air Quality Management District, had to sign off on the plan.
“The Navy is continuing to work with the city on bringing the response to the Hangar fire to a close,” the Navy’s webpage says of the project.
Two hangars were erected in farmland about 35 miles south of Los Angeles following the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The project was completed in less than a year. The hangars housed Navy anti-submarine blimps that patrolled the Pacific coast for signs of Japanese ships or submarines.
After World War II, the hangars became the centerpiece of the 1,600-acre Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, home to 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing helicopters. Fighter jets and transports flew from the nearby Marine Corps Air Station El Toro.
Both bases were closed in 1999, and most of their land was turned over to local authorities for development.
The Navy retained 225 acres centered around the blimp hangars, listed as national historic sites. The North Hangar had been shut for all uses when its roof was damaged in a 2003 windstorm.
Tustin Mayor Austin Lumbard was outspokenly critical late last year of what he said was a slow response and lack of funds from federal and state officials immediately after the fire was put out.
“It is time for the Navy to step up,” said Lumbard. “It is time for the state to step up. It is the time for the environmental agencies to do what they are empowered and authorized to do.”
But in his end-of-the-year report to the community on the fire’s aftermath, he had only praise for the Navy.
“The Navy is continuing to work with the city on bringing the response to the hangar fire to a close,” Lumbard said.
“I’d also like to express appreciation to our Navy partners who successfully advocated for critical federal funding to provide 100% reimbursement for all the work the city has performed on the Navy’s behalf,” he said. “It was not an easy task, but the Navy delivered on its funding commitment.”
Updates can be found on the Navy’s Hangar 1 Debris Removal page at https://www.bracpmo.navy.mil/BRAC-Bases/California/FormerMarine-Corps-Air-Station-Tustin/Hangar-1-Debris-Removal/ .
