Disaster preparedness and management priorities

Alan G. Howell <ahowell<-a t->ilanet< . >slnsw< . >gov< . >au> on behalf of Tegan Henderson

>A colleague I have works for a small institution in which management
>will not acknowledge disaster planning as a priority.

If you want to convince management about the necessity of disaster
planning I advice you to print this message and forward it to those
responsible. Three museum fires within one year, flooded libraries
in Poland, the incompetent reaction in Italy after the earthquakes.
The Museum Security Network (web site and mailing list has 'collected'
over 400pp of information about incidents with cultural property
since December 1996 (within ten months!). You can read the full
archive at:

    <URL:http://museum-security.org/artcrime.html> or at:
    <URL:http://museum-security.org/mail.html>

The messages below are about museum fires.
At the Museum Security Web site you can find samples of disaster and
salvage plans (and much more information in relevant fields)

The following appeared in various lists and are reproduced without
the knowledge or consent of the authors

    Messages About Museum Fires

    July 23, 1997
    French firefighters douse Paris museum blaze Fire broke out in
    an area of the roof that was being renovated!! AGAIN: remember
    the Hofburg in Vienna, Windsor Castle, and the Royal Academy
    (May 4, 1997). All these fires were caused by construction work.
    This is the third museum fire within three months: Royal Academy
    (May), Tate Gallery (June).....

    Forwarded from Museum-L

    From: Boylan P <p.boylan<-a t->city< . >ac< . >uk>
    Subject: Major Museum Fire Overnight in Paris

    Overnight (European time) news has been coming through of a very
    serious fire in the Paris Palais de Chaillot, part of the 1930s
    Trocodero complex, which houses several national museums and
    other cultural institutions, including the Musee de l'Homme, the
    national maritime museum the new national cinematography museum
    and the national museum of architecture and monumental
    sculpture. Early international press reports (e.g. BBC World
    Service radio at 1am British Summer Time) suggested that over
    4,000 sq, metres (40,000 sq.ft.) of the Musee de l'Homme itself
    was on fire. However, the latest reports are slightly less
    alarming, though this was a major incident with a "Pumps 14"
    fire engine and crew attendance level for over three hours, with
    water damage (at least) in the Musee des Monuments de France.

    Patrick J. Boylan
    (Vice-President of ICOM)

    City University, Frobisher Crescent, Barbican, London EC2Y 8HB,
    UK; phone: +44-171-477.8750, fax:+44-171-477.8887; e-mail:
    P.Boylan<-a t->city< . >ac< . >uk World Wide Web site:
    <URL:http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/>

    Date sent: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 14:39:24 GMT
    From: Claudia Nicholson <claudian<-a t->chc< . >state< . >sd< . >us>
    Organization: SD State Historical Society
    Subject: Re: again: museum fire caused by construction work

    >Fire broke out in an area of the roof that was being renovated!!
    >AGAIN: remember the Hofburg in Vienna, Windsor Castle, and the Royal
    >Academy (May 4, 1997). All these fires were caused by construction
    >work. This is the third museum fire within three months: Royal
    >Academy (May), Tate Gallery (June).....

    Add to these the Oskosh Public Museum in Wisconsin and the
    Louisiana State Museum fires--each of which was caused by
    construction on the roof. When is anybody going to get a clue
    about the dangers of construction in historic buildings?

    Claudia Nicholson
    Curator of Collections
    Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society
    claudian<-a t->chc< . >state< . >sd< . >us

    Date sent: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 16:13:00 GMT
    From: Hodcarry <hodcarry<-a t->aol< . >com>
    Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
    Subject: Re: again: museum fire caused by construction work

    Anyone who has interested in museums and/or libraries for any
    length of time can come up with a long list of damage and stolen
    items that happened during construction. I know of one large art
    museum that had a good security system-for example a computer
    kept track of who opened locks in collection areas. But the
    museum did not assign folks to watch construction workers who
    were removing walls. As a result they lost quite a few objects,
    recovered most when a dealer alerted police when offered some of
    the items for resale. I guess the point is security costs
    including staff people on duty have to be built into
    construction costs.

    Date sent: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 07:54:55 -0800
    From: Scott Reuter <reuter<-a t->earthlink< . >net>
    Organization: Exhibit Safety Services
    Subject: Re: again: museum fire caused by construction work

    >Museum fires--each of which was caused by construction on the
    >roof.
    >When is anybody going to get a clue about the dangers of
    >construction in historic buildings?

    Sounds to me as if the Museum Staff were lax in developing
    strict guidelines to prevent such a disaster. Certainly the
    construction firm is responsible for the fire, but don't forget
    who was responsible for the collection (I think we all learned
    that in our first museology class). You will probably see more
    and more of this as museums continue to turn themselves into
    theme parks to draw in more visitors.

    Best Regards,

    Scott Reuter

    May 4 1997
    Paintings rescued as fire rages in Royal Academy
    by Jason Burke and Richard Woods
    FIREMEN fought a blaze at the Royal Academy of Arts in central
    London last night. Flames shot from the roof and black smoke
    billowed down Piccadilly. Eight firefighting appliances, three
    helicopters and more than 100 firemen from across London were
    called to the scene shortly after 8pm. The fire is believed to
    have started on a temporary roof towards the back of the
    building where construction work was taking place. It spread
    down into the building. Some firemen precariously worked their
    way across the roof. Others were sent inside the building to
    protect the contents. Officers were stationed on the first,
    second and third floors to cover the exhibits with protective
    sheets and were preparing to carry them out if the fire
    threatened to spread. In two galleries up to 40 exhibits for the
    summer exhibition, whose hanging was finalised last Friday, had
    to be moved. Two sets of architectural drawings and models were
    destroyed. Some of the 228-year-old academy's valuable works
    were also threatened. The academy, founded by Sir Joshua
    Reynolds, holds Tondo, a sculpture by Michelangelo which 20
    years ago was valued at more than 36m pounds. It regularly hosts
    touring exhibitions and currently has a display of works by
    George Grosz, the German expressionist painter, and an
    exhibition of political cartoons. During the past month
    thousands of works were submitted by contemporary artists for
    consideration for the summer exhibition. Last year more than
    11,000 were submitted. The show usually attracts about 125,000
    visitors. David Gordon, secretary of the academy, said there was
    no sprinkler system in the building because water was just as
    likely to cause damage as a small fire. More than 80 people were
    inside the building attending a debate on contemporary art when
    the alarm was raised. Sergeant Andrew Mellows of Vine Street
    police station had spotted the smoke, climbed a building
    opposite and saw that most of the roof was alight. Rachel
    Lumsden, a 29-year-old postgraduate at the academy, was inside
    the building. "The debate had been going for about an hour and a
    half and was very lively," she said. "At first we all ignored
    the alarm. But when it went off a second time they cleared the
    building. I am worried about my material; a lot of my work is
    back where the fire is." Damage from the fire and the
    high-pressure water pumped in to contain it is expected to run
    to hundreds of thousands of pounds. Paintings in the galleries
    below the fire were affected by the water, and fire damage to
    some of the walls was reported to be "extensive". The academy is
    already facing a financial crisis. Last year it had an annual
    deficit of 31m pounds, accumulated debts of 33m pounds and an
    overdraft of 32.25m pounds. It had not been helped by a bursar
    who stole almost 3400,000 pounds from the institution to try to
    win back the affections of his wife. In March he was jailed for
    five years.

    Britain's Tate Gallery shut by fire
    09:30 a.m. Jun 14, 1997 Eastern
    LONDON, June 14 (Reuter) - More than 40 works of art were
    removed from London's Tate Gallery on Saturday after an
    electrical fire broke out under one of the exhibition rooms.
    Smoke billowed into the gallery and the public were evacuated
    after the blaze started in an underground cable duct, a
    spokesman for the Tate said. None of the art works was thought
    to be damaged but the gallery--London's premier modern art
    venue--was closed for the remainder of the day.

Regards,
Ton Cremers
The Museum Security Network

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:34
                 Distributed: Friday, October 10, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-34-007
                                  ***