Leningrad Library Fire

1. On Sunday evening, February 14, 1988 the Academy of Sciences Library in Leningrad caught fire. Founded in St.-Petersburg in 1714, at the height of the progressive reforms launched by Peter the Great, the library became a national treasure. Its books were collected by the scientists, librarians, politicians, statesmen, and leaders of Russia during the past 300 years. Particularly notable collections include the 1.5 million rare books, the 20,000 manuscripts, and over 6 million Russian copyright publications commencing in 1783.

2. A disaster broke out. The fire began in the newspaper room on the third floor and raged for 19 hours. By the time it was extinguished the following afternoon, it had destroyed 400,000 books of the 12 million Housed in the building; three million ones were damaged by heat and smoke; and over one million were damp or wet from water.

3. A fire alarm was sounded on Vasilevsky Island on 14 February at 8:14 p.m. The newspaper section on the third floor of the Academy of Sciences Library - the oldest book repository in this city on the Neva - was on fire. Experts estimate that the fire in the library was equal in complexity to fires of chemical reservoirs and oil tanks.

4. The building is a very important one. The 9th Fire Company responded immediately, and they were joined by the crews of 7 other fire engines. It seemed that the fire had been put out quickly, but in the middle of the night it flared up again. By the morning of February 15, more than 40 pieces of fire-fighting equipment and more than 400 fire fighters were at work - students from the Fire Academies and volunteer helpers. Thousands of people took part in saving both books and the city's honour. Members of the library staff didn't leave the site for days. It was important for them to save as many books as possible. The battle lasted till dawn. Meanwhile, the students and the volunteers carried out books.

5. It would be premature to talk about the magnitude of the losses. Many of the lost volumes were part of the Baer Collection of foreign scientific works: an early estimate gives 300,000, a later one 190,000, as the number lost. The rest were Russian books, many of them early scientific and medical books from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.