MTU Library Fire Update

It could have been a lot worse.

A fire inside the archives at Michigan Tech’s J.R. Van Pelt Library on Friday set off the sprinkler system.

The sprinklers did their job but soaked the historic records in the area in the process.

Experts from BELFOR, a disaster recovery and restoration company, are working tirelessly to preserve the materials.

The records with the worst damage were sent to a freezer facility in Green Bay.

Eventually, the documents will be transferred from there to Fort Worth, Texas to be freeze-dried.

Unfortunately, this won’t help all of the documents.

A drying room was set up to restore materials that were only slightly damaged.

In a few days, they should be all right.

The Michigan State Fire Marshal is still investigating the cause of the blaze.

The library as a whole is open to the public again, but the archives are closed until further notice.