Dear Listers,
Yes, there was a fire at the Academy just prior to Labor Day Weekend. It
started around 11:00 pm in the gift shop. No one was hurt and the fire
was extinguished swiftly by fire fighters. The flames were contained to
the gift shop area, but there was extensive heat, smoke and water damage
to several exhibit halls. The Academy was closed for two weeks while
several cleaning crews came in and scrubbed, cleaned, re-painted,
re-carpeted, etc... The Academy is back open, but two exhibit halls, the
gift shop and Auditorium remain closed. The vicinity immediately near
the fire has been gutted to the bare walls and the process of rebuilding
has begun. Fortunately none of the Academy's collections were lost,
except for a handful of live fish located in a hall that suffered from
heavy smoke and soot deposits. There was extensive water damage to
departments in the basement, located just below the fire. Ceilings and
carpets are being replaced in those areas. Several exhibit halls and
cases received a fine layer of soot which traveled through the air by
the wind created by the fire and/or the HVAC system carried these
particles to different parts of the building. These cases and artifacts
were checked and cleaned. Depending on the construction of the case and
how tightly it was sealed made all the difference! The Academy is open
to the public, despite the few halls that are being re-built, and the
on-going painting and carpeting of several areas. On September 12, we
did lose a very dear curator in our herpetology department, Dr. Joseph
Slowinski. He was on a field expedition in Burma researching venomous
snakes and died unexpectedly from a snake bite. Thank you all for your
concern, condolences and offers of help.
There is more information on both of these tragedies at
http://www.calacademy.org
--
Dinah Houghtaling
Curatorial Assistant
Anthropology Department
California Academy of Sciences
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415)-750-7345
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