An early morning fire damaged a commercial building complex housing an historic airplane factory founded by the Wright Brothers in Ohio on Sunday, authorities said. Dayton fire crews were sent to the site just before 2:30 a.m. and found heavy fire throughout the complex. Fire crews used hoses to spray water on the flames and used aerial ladders to get water into openings in the roof.
The Dayton Daily News reports that crews were still on the scene nearly 12 hours after the fire was reported. Black smoke continued to stream from a collection of multiple hangar buildings, including historic Wright Brothers airplane factory hangars, and flames could be seen on the backside of the hangars, the paper reported.
Capt. Brad French said in a news release that the structure involved is listed on the National Historic Register as the first aircraft manufacturing facility founded by the Wright Brothers. Mackensie Wittmer, executive director of the National Aviation Heritage Area, said in a Facebook post that the group was “deeply saddened by the fire that damaged our historic Wright Company airplane factory, the first-purpose built buildings for the aviation industry.” Officials were working to assess the damage, Wittmer