Library Repair Could Hit $20 Million
Fenty Moves to Line Up Funding for Quick Recovery From Georgetown Fire

By Susan Levine
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 3, 2007

Rebuilding the fire-ravaged Georgetown public library could cost between $15 million and $20 million, a sum that D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty yesterday committed to allocating without delay so that the doors can reopen "as quickly as possible."

Fenty (D) has drafted emergency legislation to direct all excess revenue in fiscal 2007 and 2008 toward the library and historic Eastern Market, which also was hit by a three-alarm blaze Monday. One city official estimated yesterday that as much as $80 million could be made available.

"It's important that there not be any gap in the reconstruction" of either site, Fenty declared.

As officials continued to assess damage to the library -- taking stock of the branch's contents as well as to the Georgian-style building -- they had good news about the Peabody Collection that documents Georgetown's past through extensive records, maps, photos, books and clippings.

Perhaps 80 percent of the collection, housed on the library's east side, suffered far less harm than initially feared. The ceiling there held, and the archives escaped smoke and flames.

"The material is wet but not burned," Ginnie Cooper, chief librarian for the city, said against the backdrop of a charred and partially collapsed second-floor roofline. "We can deal with wet."

The mayor, Cooper and other city leaders toured that devastated upper floor yesterday afternoon after recounting the fire department's response. Inexplicably, the department was not immediately called when flames broke out about noon, and by the time crews arrived, the roof was engulfed and starting to cave in, Chief Dennis L. Rubin said.

Firefighters had other problems once they reached the library, at Wisconsin Avenue and R Street NW. The two closest fire hydrants were not working, forcing them to pull water from two blocks away. Officials later revealed that more than 50 hydrants across the city are not in working order. But firefighter union officials warned there are probably more, because hydrants often aren't tested until a fire breaks out.

The department has not determined how the fire started but said it is focusing on an accidental cause, possibly electrical. Electrical problems also are suspected in the fire at the Eastern Market, which destroyed 13 businesses inside the landmark on Capitol Hill. Hydrants at that scene were working.

Fenty labeled the hydrant issue a "huge priority" and said the city will work with the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority, the quasi-independent agency responsible for maintaining them. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) requested a congressional hearing on the matter.

"There is ample reason to be concerned that the problem in Georgetown may not be an isolated one," Davis wrote to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In a subsequent interview, Davis said he wanted to determine whether the District needed federal help in providing regular inspections and maintenance of its 9,300 hydrants.

City leaders dismissed the need for such assistance in unequivocal terms yesterday. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), who represents Georgetown, tartly urged Congress to attend instead to national concerns. Separately, he and colleague Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said they would ask for a council review of the hydrants' condition and WASA operations.

"I see absolutely no value in Congress stepping into our affairs," Evans said. "It's an issue we can handle and we will handle, and I do not appreciate the congressman grandstanding at our expense."

Yesterday's walk-through by officials provided a stark look at what Georgetown residents lost this week. The westernmost upstairs room, one of two housing the children's collection, is a sodden, blackened shell open to the sky. Exposed are steel beams, felled and twisted by the intense heat.

Amazingly, despite a sagging, dripping ceiling, some books in the middle room are unscathed. Several young-adult series on shelves against a wall appear ready for checkout. "It could have been a lot worse," a hard-hatted Fenty said.

Interim arrangements are being made all around. The fire department's Engine 5 on Dent Place plans to relocate two support trucks to allow for a temporary reading room. Georgetown University has invited the community into its library. Cooper promised to resume children's programs and station a bookmobile in the neighborhood within weeks.

Some items of the Peabody Collection are beyond repair, including oil paintings that apparently were soaked. "They look like etchings on canvas now," Cooper said.

The collection will be sent to several locations for repair, including the Smithsonian Institution, which has taken possession of census volumes and other rare books. Much material will head to Texas in a white freezer truck. Once there, the technical division of Belfor Property Restoration will begin a process of thawing, washing, reshaping and ultimately freeze-drying the records and other items.

From Fort Worth, Kirk Lively, Belfor's director of technical services, explained how water in a document "goes directly from ice to vapor without passing through the liquid phase." And, in so doing, the document is saved -- from mold, from deterioration, from ruin.

Not all of the collection will require major work. Some metal filing cabinets in the Peabody Room protected their contents completely. "In some cases [the material] was dry," Cooper said before the tour. In others, "sopping wet."

On the sidewalk outside the library sat dozens of plastic-lined boxes of records, labeled and taped and ready for loading in the 53-foot "Thermo King" truck. By Monday, the truck should be in Texas.

"I am much more optimistic," Cooper declared.

Staff writers Keith L. Alexander, Allison Klein and David Nakamura contributed to this report.