A fire Friday afternoon raged through the headquarters complex of Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania and destroyed three buildings before the flames could be put out. None of the staff or volunteers at the national memorial were injured, but officials fear some of the archival and curatorial collections, including the flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol on September 11, might have been destroyed.
"The lost buildings served multiple functions for the operation of the memorial, including administrative and staff offices, conference facilities, and storage of some of the memorial’s archival and curatorial collection," the Park Service said in a release. "Of greatest concern are those collections. Fortunately, only 10 percent of the Flight 93 National Memorial collection was kept on-site in this building, and many of those objects are stored in fireproof safes. Until the area is declared safe, however, staff will not be able to access the collection storage area and determine the condition of any other objects."
Park Service officials said staff was able to save oral history collection and the photo collection that were kept in the facility. The Congressional Gold Medal awarded last month was not on-site at the time of the fire, they added.
"The 9/11 flag that flew over the United States Capitol on September 11 and was presented to the park just last month during the annual 9/11 observance was stored on site, though, again, staff have not yet been able to access the collection area to determine the condition of the flag," the agency said.
The cause of the fire, which was reported shortly after 3 p.m. local time, was under investigation by local fire officials, but National Park Service special agents were en route to the site and were to take over the investigation upon their arrival.
Because of the distant location of these buildings from the memorial plaza and the access road to reach the memorial, Flight 93 National Memorial will be open for visitors on Saturday morning at the regular time.
Comments
It is hard to image that much damage could occur without a nefarious origin.
Closely spaced temporary buildings -- modular construction that is nowhere near fire resistant. High winds. No hydrants in the area forced fire crews to ferry water in tankers.
The perfect storm.
No conspriracy theories needed.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/10/03/report-major-fire-at-flight-93...
So it was incompetence rather than sabotage?
Yeah. Probably can't get much more incompetent than a 40 mile per hour wind. Or maybe it was the modular home lobby that manages time after time to beat down attempts to strengthen building and fire code requirements for modular structures.
Take your pick.
Conspiracy du jour.
If there is a conspiracy, it's a result of a profit motive that continues to push for use of lightweight wood materials, combustible adhesives (instead of nails), lack of adequate fire stops and other shortcuts in quality of materials and construction. This puts occupants and firefighters at increased risk.
Many communities have different standards for construction of built homes and modulars because of opposition from the modular industry when they try to revise building and fire codes.
But, hey, what's more important -- people or dollars?
http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-162/issue-5/feature...
http://www.iafc.org/Operations/LegacyArticleDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=3758
http://www.firehouse.com/news/11710852/flight-93-national-memorial-build...
Yes you can, store unreplaceable historical items in a storage shed with inadequate fire protection. Place modular homes so close together they can catch one another on fire (if that happened) and have inadequate fire fighting resources on site.
It must be nice to be perfect, eh?
Lee - I'm giving the NPS the benefit of the doubt. My fear is that while the NPS likely took adequate precautions against an accidental fire, those precautions were overcome by an intentional act of arson.
You totally dismissed that as a possibility trying to find some "more government" solution. If this wan't an intential act of arson then the work of the NPS wasn't only imperfect, it was down right incompetent.
Unfortunately, when we find out actually what happened, neither one of these options will be comforting.
I'm working from the standpoint of one who became a volunteer structural firefighter at age sixteen and eventually served as chief of two volunteer departments. It's very, very unlikely it was arson.
As for incompetence . . . . perhaps. But is it more likely some good, conscientous people trying to do the best they could with what they have to work with -- or without. Throughout the NPS curatorial collections have historically been neglected.
Why?
Money.
So if there was incompetence, could it go straight back to Congress? Are they incompetent for providing inadequate funding for parks while forcing the armed forces to take on multi-billion dollar weapons systems like tanks and aircraft that not even the Pentagon wants? Heck, the money spent for one F-35 could fund all the curatorial activities of all the parks -- or at least make a mighty big dent in the backlog.