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Probe of P.A. Airport fire site concluded: No cause yet

Apr 23, 2018 | 3:00 PM

A team including fire investigators, police and insurance assessors has concluded its probe at the site of the fire that destroyed a hangar at the Prince Albert Airport last week.

There was no word yet on what sparked the huge blaze although an official indicated they were leaning toward some sort of accidental cause.

P.A. deputy chief Corey Rodgers said investigators still needed to analyze a few elements.

“They’ve concluded their investigation and have turned the scene over to the owners [Transwest Air],” Rodgers told paNOW. “They need to check on a few things this week before making a final determination.”

Those elements included looking at video of the fire taken at the scene and on inspection of certain equipment removed from the debris, according to Rodgers. He said there also may have been some closed circuit video available.

While Rodgers said it would likely be Thursday before any further information was released the investigators were not leaning toward anything suspicious.

“We’re leaning towards the higher end of it being something accidental,” Rodgers said.

He added that while investigators would have preferred to have some remnants of a building left to inspect they are very skilled at finding clues in debris. He said even if the specific conclusion of the probe found the cause to be undetermined there could be sufficient evidence to point to a probable cause.

The fire that started late at night April 15 completely destroyed the historic hangar which was used by Transwest Air as a maintenance facility. It is not clear what was being stored in the facility but at least one aircraft was consumed by the fire.

 

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow