Hangar Fire 1978

The last of Kenley's General Service sheds burning on 23rd October, 1978. Photo by Alex Watson, OC of 615 VGS, a professional photographer for Sevenoaks Chronicle.

Contributed by Keith Chandler

The last of Kenley's General Service sheds burning on 23rd October, 1978. Photo by Alex Watson, OC of 615 VGS, a professional photographer for Sevenoaks Chronicle.

Contributed by Keith Chandler

On 23rd October, 1978, Kenley’s last original hangar was destroyed in a fire, when a heater was accidentally left on in a room used to store newspapers for charity.

Besides the destruction of this historic building 615VGS had their gliders in the hangar and these were also lost…

Three Slingsby T.31B Cadet TX.3 gliders were completely destroyed (WT875, XA300 and XN242). Another (XA288) was severely damaged, but was later rebuilt/repaired and re-designated, G-BPCW, thence to EI-CJT at Rathcoole, Ireland.

615VGS Fleet included two Slingsby T21’s – WB940 & WB932. However 932 was away being smartened up as it was the spare for Prince Andrew’s solo (it wasn’t used) while it was away we had WB922 which was in the hanger with WB940 when it burnt.* WB932 was returned to 615 and made the first launch of the recommenced operation on 17th Feb 1980.

NB: it appears that WB940 was destroyed in the fire but WB922 survived.

Eddie Young commented on facebook:

Back in the mid 70’s when l first went to Kenley to service the glider school 615 winches and Landrovers the old wooden hanger was well used. Whilst away on my Fitters course, disaster occurred. Got back to see the remnants of that fire.
I was Motorised Transport at Biggin Hill. We supported 615. Seeing what happened was so upsetting. I went into what was left of the hanger. All my my vehicles had melted. I remember the only things left of the Landrovers where the steel parts of the gearboxes.”

Sources:
Many thanks to Keith Chandler for information and photos.

Date of creation

1978

Date of coverage

1978

Contributor

Keith Chandler

Reference number

KRP0169

Keywords

Cadets (11)

Glider (7)

Hangars (2)

Format

Photographs (64)

License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND)

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The newspapers were being collected by the local Air Cadet Squadron, 450, and stored in one of the side-rooms of the unused half of the hangar. It was generally thought, as it turned out, wrongly, that the electrical power on that side was switched off at the mains. Over a period of time the papers heated up and spontaneously combusted. The saddest part of the story is that WB940 was the first glider I ever flew in as a cadet and, later as an instructor, the first glider I looped in.
By Tom Coomber (24/10/2021)

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