Many of the fire departments in Hunt County were involved Wednesday afternoon in battling a five-alarm fire at the Caddo Mills Municipal Airport, which heavily damaged one of the hangars at the airport and much of what was stored inside the building.

“We had three airplanes totally destroyed, one automobile and one motorcycle,” said Hunt County Fire Marshal Richard Hill, who said a cause for the fire was still under investigation, but is believed to have been accidental in nature.

“There is nothing that is leading us to believe that it was an arson fire at this time,” Hill said, who noted he worked alongside Greenville Fire-Rescue Department Fire Marshal Jake Papageorgiou.

Hudson Northcutt of Sulphur Springs said his uncle’s plane was one of those which was lost in the fire.

“He literally just bought that plane,” Northcutt said. “He was on the hunt for it for a year.”

Hill expects it will take some time for the probe into the incident to be completed.

“There are multiple insurance companies involved,” Hill said.

Personnel and equipment from the Caddo Mills, Cash, Celeste, Greenville, Merit and West Tawakoni fire departments were involved in fighting the fire, which was first reported at around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at one end of the metal hangar building at the airport off of FM 1565.

A separate unit was dispatched from the L3 Harris company at Majors Field Municipal Airport in Greenville.

Hill said the additional assistance was invaluable, as the company had special equipment and techniques available, designed to deal with an aviation-related fire.

Hill said the blaze was complicated by the fact that many of the airplanes inside the hangar were loaded with aviation fuel, some of which created explosions.

Hill also thanked the Commerce E-Corps and AMR for being on hand for rehabilitation efforts because even though no one was injured, fighting the fire was difficult in the metal building in temperatures close to 100 degrees.

The fire was reported under control about two hours later and units were allowed to begin returning to their stations at around 3 p.m. Wednesday.

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