PHOENIX — The Hall of Flame Museum, home to the world’s largest collection of firefighting history, is cleaning up after two powerful monsoon storms sent floodwaters pouring through its galleries.
The nonprofit museum, which sits near the Phoenix Zoo on the Tempe border, took what Executive Director Chuck Montgomery calls “a pretty severe hit.”
“One [storm] dropped four inches of rain on our acre roof, filled up our galleries with water, and we spent the better part of two weeks cleaning that out," Montgomery said. "No sooner did we get that out and then we had the catastrophic storm that hit Tempe.”
The second storm, a confirmed microburst on Oct. 13, ripped off roofs in Tempe.
The Hall of Flame — which spans nearly an acre under one roof — houses artifacts from around the world,