FIRE IN THE ARCHIVE: Response and Recovery

Fireman tending to the controlled burn of
library bookshelf fire.

Last month I attended the Illinois Fire Service Institute Burn Simulation and Recovery Workshop. Sponsored by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI), the event aimed to teach archivists and librarians how to cope with fires in cultural heritage institutions and schools. The first half of the workshop was in-class presentations. 

The two speakers were: Eddie Bain, Investigator/Public Information Officer with the Savoy Fire Department, and Jennifer Hain Teper, Head of Preservation Services at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Bain, with over 40 years of firefighting experience, presented on fire prevention in today’s modern environment. Teper introduced us to fire disaster planning, which focused on assessing the damage, planning for recovery, and salvage operations.

Aftermath of  five minute fire on library materials

The second half of the workshop included hands-on experience with fire and water damaged library and archival materials. Since we were at the Illinois Fire Service Institute in Champaign, Illinois, firefighters were on hand to set discarded library materials on fire! There were two bookcases full of books, CDs, pamphlets, floppy discs, microfilm, film reels, and VHS tapes; typical library and archive holdings. 

I went into the building and watched from a safe distance the fire work its way up the shelves, and the smoke and heat fill the air. To get the fire going, the firefighters used straw to increase the temperature to over 1400°.  After five minutes the fire was extinguished and everything was burnt and water logged.

Now came time for recovery, which was dirty and time consuming. High temperature and high humidity equals a breeding ground for mold, so in a real library or archive fire the main objective is to move everything affected to a clean, and secure location. At the workshop, we moved the objects to one of the firetruck bays so we could assess the damage. Some of the books were un-salvageable, but a majority could be cleaned and rebound because the fire only burned the spines. 

The effects on the CDs, film reels, and other plastic objects was really fascinating. Most of the cases melted and completely encased the artifact within, but others only partially melted leaving the object intact. The polyester film reels melted and fused together, making them worthless. For salvage operations, we practiced washing books and wrapping them for freeze drying, which is done to delay any preservation action until time and money allows.

I walked away from this workshop with an abundance of disaster planning knowledge, and some very cool pictures. I thank CARLI, the Preservation Committee, and the Illinois Fire Service Institute for allowing us to participate in this unique learning experience.