I kept forgetting all last week to blog about the fact that there was a huge fire at an old WWII airplane hangar down in Galveston, destroying what was to be an integral part of the new Schlitterbahn park. That fire has now been ruled accidental.
Galveston fire officials asked for federal help in examining the remains of the building, and agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives combed through debris Friday.
“The main reason we’re here is the size of this fire,” said ATF Agent Franceska Perot. “It’s an awfully huge building to try to do an investigation on with limited resources.”
The ATF has many investigative resources and the legal ability to step in when fires occur in commercial buildings, Perot said.
The 1943 hangar was constructed mainly of wood on a concrete and metal frame.
The 50,000-square-foot hangar was to be incorporated into a planned Schlitterbahn water park..
Schlitterbahn officials have said they still plan to build a water park at the hangar site, which is part of the city’s property at Scholes International Airport. But the design may be affected by the fire.
I certainly hope the Schlitterbahn folks are able to recover from this and build the park they want to build. Coverage of the fire from last week is here, here, here, here, here, and here.
That’s a relief.
After the subterfuge involved in getting the city’s approval, I seriously suspected that a rival developer with a somewhat unclean public image (cough) had something to do with it.
Happily, there is nothing to see here.