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Fire Closes Detroit PL Main BranchThe Detroit Public Library main branch remained closed September 29, a day after a power surge and flash fire in a basement transformer room cut power to the library and several other buildings in Detroit’s Cultural Center area. The two city employees who were doing maintenance work on the circuit breakers in the room were treated for minor burns, and a library patron was trapped briefly in an elevator. “We hope to be open within a week, but I’m just not sure,” DPL Director Maurice Wheeler told American Libraries September 29. Wheeler said the administration was able to work in the building because some power was being supplied by generators installed the evening of the fire. The explosive fire shot through the 15-by-30-foot basement room, out a door that had been left open as a routine safety precaution, and into stacks, knocking books off their shelves, the Detroit Free Press reported September 29. The surge also blew the door off an air shaft in the room, and flames shot about 20 feet into the air from a vent, leaving black soot on the library’s outside wall. DPL was also closed from August 30 to September 8 after fecal coliform bacteria were found in water left in the basement after flooding in late July. The library’s noted Burton Historical Collection remains closed while books are cleaned. Damage to the collection was estimated at $400,000. “We have had our share of challenges this year, but I don’t want them to overshadow the good things that are happening here, which are significant,” Wheeler told AL. Posted October 2, 2000. |
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