Established in 1942 as San Bernardino Army Air Field, the installation was renamed in 1950 to honor Captain Leland Francis Norton, a World War II pilot killed in combat. Norton AFB served as a major hub for the Military Airlift Command and later the Air Mobility Command through World War II, the Cold War, and Operation Desert Storm before closing under the 1994 Base Realignment and Closure program. The base's role as a logistics and maintenance center left it with extensive aircraft hangars, engine overhaul facilities, warehouses, machine shops, and fuel storage areas, much of it built between the 1940s and 1970s.
Supporting a Military Airlift Command fleet meant Norton Air Force Base kept a permanent Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting program in place to protect its cargo aircraft, maintenance facilities, and fuel storage areas. Air Force and ATSDR records point to one primary training site, Fire Protection Training Area No. 1, also tracked as Installation Restoration Program Site 5, where crews ran fire control and suppression drills from the late 1950s through the 1970s using JP-4, JP-5, waste fuels, waste oils, and spent solvents to simulate aircraft fuel fires.
Over those two decades of training, firefighters at this site regularly:
- mixed foam concentrate ahead of each drill
- worked hoses against a live fuel burn
- cleaned trucks and protective gear once the exercise ended
- serviced foam tanks and delivery lines for the next crew
- returned for recurring certification cycles year after year
Fire Protection Specialists and ARFF crew members were at the center of that routine, joined by:
- fire instructors running the drills
- trainees still earning certification
- civilian firefighters on staff
- personnel who kept the firefighting vehicles and foam systems running
PFAS chemicals in legacy AFFF have been connected to kidney cancer and testicular cancer in firefighters with this kind of long-term occupational exposure. If you trained or served as a firefighter at Norton AFB's Fire Protection Training Area No. 1 and were later diagnosed with one of these cancers, that connection is worth having reviewed.
As Norton AFB grew during World War II and the Cold War, asbestos went into its buildings for the same reasons it went into every base from that era: heat resistance, durability, and reliable insulation. More than 50 years of continuous use as a maintenance and logistics center meant hangars, warehouses, boiler plants, and machine shops needed steady upkeep, work that put maintenance crews in direct contact with these materials well after their risks became known. Materials commonly used during this period included:
- pipe insulation
- boiler insulation
- steam distribution insulation
- HVAC insulation
- fireproof wallboard
- roofing materials
- vinyl floor tile
- adhesive
- ceiling tile
- gasket and packing material
Trades most likely to have disturbed these materials while maintaining or renovating older buildings include:
- aircraft maintenance technician
- civil engineer
- electrician
- pipefitter
- HVAC mechanic
- boiler technician
- welder
- civilian depot employee
Once Norton AFB closed, redevelopment work brought asbestos management and abatement into the process of renovating and demolishing what remained of the older structures. Mesothelioma and lung cancer are the two illnesses most consistently linked to this kind of exposure, and both can take 20 to 50 years to show symptoms after the fibers were first inhaled. If you performed maintenance work at Norton AFB and have since been diagnosed with either condition, contact our team to find out whether you're eligible to file an asbestos claim.