 |
| An aerial view of the fire. St. Louis Post Dispatch file photo |
The Fire
The fire started shortly after midnight on July 12, 1973, on
the sixth floor of the building. While
firemen arrived on the scene within minutes, the fire burned out of control for 22 hours. It was prevented from spreading to other floors, but it took
four days before the fire was officially out.
The cause of the blaze was never determined, however, several
theories surrounding its cause include spontaneous combustion and
arson. The sixth floor of the building
was completely destroyed and the fifth floor had severe water damage. The environment was ripe for
mold. As a result, the building was
treated with Thymol to prevent mold outbreaks.
 |
| The sixth floor of the building after the fire. St. Louis Post Dispatch file photo |
Unfortunately, there were no paper or microfilm copies of
the destroyed records. To make matters worse, there was no way to determine which records had been lost. No indexes had been created and millions of records had been loaned to the VA prior to the fire. Fortunately, before the fire was completely out, Archives
staff had begun the herculean task of salvaging the records that they could.
Their efforts resulted in approximately 6.5 million burned and water damaged records
being saved.
 |
| A burned record that was salvaged by Archives staff. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com |
The burned records were put into a registry and stored in a
separate temperature controlled area at the Archives to protect and safeguard
them. The plan was for these records to be reconstructed over time. The water damaged records were sent to the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis and to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) facility in Ohio to be dried. Both locations had vacuum drying facilities. Archives staff used alternative sources, such as, the Veterans
Administration (VA) Claims files and individual state records to recreate the records that were completely destroyed.
New Facilities
NARA’s, new state of the art facilities include an advanced and
expanded Preservation Lab. In the lab, specially trained technicians
reconstruct the burned records to recover as much information as possible. In the article titled “Labor of love and duty at St. Louis County records center after 1973 fire” by Steve Giegerich that was published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the importance of
restoring these records is detailed in the story of Lewis Lower, a Korean War
Veteran. Lower’s dying wish was to be
buried with full military honors. To
make this wish come true, his daughter had to prove that he was indeed a
veteran. Fortunately, an Archives
technician was able to locate Lower’s burned record. As a result of this, he received his dying
wish.
 |
| An Archives Technician reconstructing a burned record. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com |
NPRC receives 4,500- 5,000 reference requests per day. The
majority of requests are from veterans who need to document their “time in
service” for various benefits. However,
the records are also valuable to individuals interested in their family
history. It is for this reason that project staff hopes to make the military and
civil service records of as many Missourians who participated in WWI easily
accessible to the public.
To learn more about the fire and its aftermath read "The 1973 Fire, National Personnel Records Center"
To go behind- the-scenes of NPRC's new Preservation Lab view this short (3 mins) video clip.
Sources:
"New State-of-the-Art Facility" The National Archives at St. Louis National Personnel Records Center Commemorative Issue produced by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"The 1973 Fire, National Personnel Records Center" http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/fire-1973.html
"Labor of love and duty at St. Louis County records center after 1973 fire" http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/labor-of-love-and-duty-at-st-louis-county-records/article_ed6db9a4-268e-5a67-ab3c-d1df72c1aef2.html
