Disaster preparedness and management priorities

Re: fire danger.  The news items sent were very helpful.  It should
be stated, however, that the massive fires that make the news are
only the ones that got out of hand.  A lot more institutions than
have had big fires have had small ones that only create smells and
some soot, and are never reported to the public. ( As a conservator,
I know of several.  Is it unethical of me to tell tales?) A more
interesting matter would be to investigate this kind of fire to
determine if they were prevented from getting worse by some measures
taken before or after the fact, or if they were the result of
preventable circumstances and were caught early out of luck.

I was told recently that NFPA (U.S) is working on a revision of
their publication on museums. Is anyone working with them on this? A
compilation of new stories with some analysis that conservators
could obtain and pass around would be really helpful; if a NFPA
publication will not fill this need, the perhaps another--possible
international--group of conservators needs to do it.  Any
suggestions?

B. Appelbaum

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:35
                 Distributed: Tuesday, October 14, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-35-006
                                  ***