Small JWA hanger fire quickly extinguished

A small hanger fire at John Wayne Airport on Wednesday didn’t damage

any property or injure anyone, officials said.

Airport fire crews arrived at a private hanger on the east side of the

airfield, near Dove Street, during midmorning to find that another tenant

had already extinguished the fire.

Shortly before the fire was reported at 10:35 a.m., a pile of rags

soaked in a wood-stain substance caught fire when the temperature rose in

one of the hangers leased out by South Coast Associates. The stain is

known to spontaneously combust when the temperature rises.

The rags were bunched in a cloth bag in the hanger, JWA spokeswoman

Ann McCarley said.

A tenant quickly put out the fire before the Orange County Fire

Authority arrived to the scene. The hanger is near the closed Fire

Station No. 27, McCarley said.

South Coast Associates rents out the hangers to various private

airplane owners to store their planes.