Digital Bob Archive

The blast of the 2-3 fire call sounded from the horn on top of City Hall, at Fourth and Main Streets, at 3:10 p.m. on June 6, 1938. Two fire engines, manned by paid drivers and such members of the Juneau Volunteer Fire Department as happened to be close by, pulled out into Fourth Street, then around the corner to head down Main. There was no need for the drivers to ask the location of the fire; heavy smoke was pouring from the Alaska Air Transport hangar at the foot of the street, on what is now Merchants Wharf. It was spectacular, and there were lots of spectators: the cruise ship Prince Robert of the Canadian National line had just pulled in at the Alaska Steamship Company wharf.

The hangar was on what had once been the Pacific Coast Steamship Company wharf. After that company moved to another site it became known as the Commercial Wharf and in 1938 one of the owners of both the wharf and the hangar building was Thomas A. Morgan of the Columbia Lumber Company.

When the fire broke out on that June day, Gordon Graham, chief mechanic for Sheldon Simmons of AAT, and his assistant, Don Harwick, were at work in the hangar on a Bellanca Skyrocket, using a welding torch and other tools. Suddenly there was an explosion and a great deal of smoke. The two men could not see each other but they both found the door and reached the street.

Down in the lower hangars, on a float in front of the dock, were three company planes: a Lockheed Vega, a Stinson, and an Aeronca. All three were saved. Russ Clithero, dispatcher and radio operator for Alaska Air Transport, had been on the lower float and was on his way up to the office and radio room, next to the hangar when the fire broke out. He retreated to the float.

Shell Simmons started the Lockheed, ready to taxi it to safety. There is some confusion about the Stinson. One of Juneau's two daily papers said Johnny Amundsen, a regular pilot for AAT, took it out. The other paper gave the credit to Gene Meyring, a pilot for Pacific Alaska Airway, who happened to be in the lower hangar. Whoever was pilot, the plane was taxied to safety. Rudy Tencich, a student pilot, climbed into the Aeronca and started it. He took off down the ramp at the same time Simmons left another ramp with the Lockheed. The two planes collided and the propellor of the Aeronca was smashed. There was little damage to the Lockheed.

Tom Smith with his boat, the Yakobi, put a line on the floating hangar and pulled it out into the bay while the firemen were fighting the hangar fire above. The building had a galvanized iron roof which kept the flames inside and did not make the task any easier. The firemen were able to save a quantity of lumber and building supplies belonging to Columbia Lumber Co. Alaska Air Transport, in addition to the Bellanca plane, lost its shop, tools and many spare parts and its office and radio station.

The AAT hangar fire was just one of many waterfront blazes fought by the Juneau Volunteer Fire Department during the past 100 years.