Library officials said the Peabody Collection suffered less damage than initially feared, with about 95% of the items intact. “The material is wet but not burned,” Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper said in the May 3 Washington Post. “We can deal with wet.”
Interim Director of Library Services Nancy Davenport, who was on the scene during the blaze, instructed firefighters to concentrate on saving the Peabody materials. She obtained flash freezers from disaster-restoration company Belfor USA’s Sterling, Virginia, offices and lined up local painting conservators who took away some two-dozen canvases that were salvaged. The census volumes and other paper materials were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution’s preservation facilities. Davenport told American Libraries she also contacted the Library of Congress, who sent preservation staff to help remove materials from the building the next day.
Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin told the May 4 Post that a construction worker using a heat gun to remove paint probably caused the blaze. The fire burned for 15 minutes before a staff member arriving for work around noon noticed smoke coming from the roof. Firefighters were hampered by the fact that two of the hydrants closest to the library were not working, forcing them to use hydrants two blocks away.
Rebuilding the branch, which was undergoing a redesign and renovation, will cost as much as $20 million. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty declared his commitment to the effort. “This library has been a central component of Georgetown since 1935, and will continue to be a vital ingredient of the community,” said Fenty. “We have definite plans to rebuild, restore, and reopen this facility.”
Georgetown University has offered community members access to its library, and a nearby fire station has offered to relocate two support trucks to make space for a temporary reading room. Cooper said DCPL would resume children’s programs and station a bookmobile in the neighborhood within weeks, the Post reported May 3.
The fire occurred some three hours after a three-alarm fire destroyed the historic Eastern Market on Washington’s Capitol Hill.
Posted May 4, 2007.