July 7, 2023 post by the US National Archives on Facebook:
In 1973, a disastrous fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) destroyed between 16 and 18 million Official Military Personnel Files. We're marking the occasion with a three-part series on the fire and its aftermath.
On July 12, 1973, shortly after midnight, a fire was reported at the NPRC’s military personnel records building at 9700 Page Boulevard in St. Louis, MO. Within minutes, fire trucks arrived on the scene. The firemen tried to enter the sixth floor, where the fire had started, but the extreme heat prevented them. Their focus turned to fighting the fire from outside the building. Unfortunately, the partial collapse of the roof made their efforts difficult. Over the next 24 hours, numerous fire departments from the surrounding counties came to assist.
During this time, experts from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Public Services Building came to the site to save as many documents as possible. Since the fire was concentrated on the south side of the building, people were still able to briefly enter the facility. The staff was aware that the fire was concentrated on the sixth floor, where Army and Air Force records were held, and they made it a priority to retrieve boxes of microfilm that held morning reports for the two branches. These reels helped staff reconstruct records that were lost in the fire and are still heavily used to this day.
The fire was finally put out on July 16, and control of the building was returned to the government. The priority was on saving the records that could be salvaged. When staff were allowed onto the sixth floor, they were pleasantly surprised to discover that some of the records on the floor had survived. Records were removed from the affected areas and brought to the parking lot, where tents were set up and employees sorted through the records.
Learn more about the NPRC fire on the Pieces of History blog
National Personnel Records Center Fire Series: The Fire
Image: Building 100 during the 1973 fire at the Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO, 1973.
- Burnt in memory: Looking back at the 1973 St. Louis fire at The National Archives Prologue: Pieces of History blog.
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What is Preservation Programs doing with a Burned Record, a Customized Camera, and a WEBER Grill? The...
Posted by Preservation Programs at the U.S. National Archives on Wednesday, September 24, 2014Wednesday, September 24, 2014 post by the Preservation Programs at the U.S. National Archives on Facebook:
What is Preservation Programs doing with a Burned Record, a Customized Camera, and a WEBER Grill?
The burned record bays at Archives Drive facility in St. Louis are home to the ‘B-files’. These are OMPF records that were recovered from the devastating 1973 fire, when the entire 6th floor of the Page Avenue facility burned destroying some 18 million individual serviceman’s records. Approximately 6.5 million records were recovered. Given the variety of conditions present on these documents, a number of preservation actions (e.g., mold remediation, repair, flattening or other stabilization) are required before releasing these records for reference. Unfortunately many, like this example, are too damaged to yield information and will deteriorate rapidly in the case of further handling.
For several years Preservation Programs in St. Louis has tested IR photographic methods to ‘see through’ charred and mold-stained paper and recover information with the idea that digitized versions will best accomplish access for this subset of highly damaged records. Our testing led to the development of a customized camera system, by Digital Transitions, a photographic technology vendor that specializes in cultural heritage imaging. The examples above are successive shots directly from the camera prototype, with no manipulation (except cropping and redaction). An internal filter wheel (at very bottom of illustration 4) can be rotated to select bandwidth sensitivity between visible light and two infrared ranges. In addition, the lens turret has been modified to include focus stops (illustrated in orange) to allow operators to rapidly and accurately adapt focus between taking successive shots of visible and IR.
While testing the prototype camera, Digital Transitions created simulated burned records by wrapping a dictionary in aluminum foil and grilling it in a barbeque grill. It turns out that creating char without completely consuming paper is not as easy as it might seem. Significant challenges and work remain in the areas of: a) identifying the best candidates for digitization, b) developing special document handling methods during photography for those fused, blocked, moldy, highly burned, brittle or otherwise heavily damaged documents, and c) integrating these images of damaged records into the archival and reference workflows.
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A “fly over video” of a burned record: In previous postings the St. Louis Preservation Lab shared information about the specialized camera equipment used for imaging burned records. We included images that demonstrate our ability to recover content from charred records, providing access to information previously thought unrecoverable. In the last five months we delivered over 11,000 document page images (from heavily damaged records) to our customers. For this post we share with you a short video showing the video taken of a charred edge of a burned document in both conventional imaging and infrared. We are always looking to improve our processes. There are two camera sets we use for burned record imaging in our lab; right now, one of these sets is dedicated to testing. This week we are testing LED infrared lights to supplement the strobe lights we currently use when imaging in infrared. More updates will be provided about the technical details of our imaging work in St. Louis in future posts.
Posted by Preservation Programs at the U.S. National Archives on Friday, February 26, 2016February 26, 2016 post by the inactive Preservation Programs at the U.S. National Archives on Facebook:
A “fly over video” of a burned record:
In previous postings the St. Louis Preservation Lab shared information about the specialized camera equipment used for imaging burned records. We included images that demonstrate our ability to recover content from charred records, providing access to information previously thought unrecoverable. In the last five months we delivered over 11,000 document page images (from heavily damaged records) to our customers. For this post we share with you a short video showing the video taken of a charred edge of a burned document in both conventional imaging and infrared.
We are always looking to improve our processes. There are two camera sets we use for burned record imaging in our lab; right now, one of these sets is dedicated to testing. This week we are testing LED infrared lights to supplement the strobe lights we currently use when imaging in infrared. More updates will be provided about the technical details of our imaging work in St. Louis in future posts.
Update on burned record scanning: In previous postings the St. Louis Preservation Lab shared information about the...
Posted by Preservation Programs at the U.S. National Archives on Wednesday, July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 post by inactive Preservation Programs at the U.S. National Archives on Facebook:
Update on burned record scanning:
In previous postings the St. Louis Preservation Lab shared information about the specialized camera equipment used for imaging burned records. As an update to this, we are pleased to report that in July 2015 we went into full production, supplying digital versions of the highly damaged burned records that are used for reference requests.
What makes this process truly unique is the information recovery component and the speed with which we are able to capture images (both visible and infrared) on one set.
Records are typically many pages long and in most instances include fragments. In this example, a pair of fragments from the same document were aligned by a technician prior to imaging. While the information loss is nearly 100% in the visible shot, a good deal of information was recovered in the IR image.
- Archives Recalls Fire That Claimed Millions of Military Personnel Files by Kerri Lawrence published July 23, 2018 in the National Archives News.
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August 7, 2022 post by Today's Document on Facebook:
On 8/7/2012, a conservator at the National Archives’ National Personnel Records Center works with records damaged by the 1973 fire that destroyed over 16 million Official Military Personnel Files.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/184341469...
Series: Central Digital Photographic Assignment Files Documenting Events, Officials, Facilities, and Operations, 1/3/2006 - 12/19/2013
Record Group 64: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, 1789 - ca. 2007
Image description: A conservator wearing blue nitrile gloves separates pages from a block of papers that are curled, singed, and crumbling around the edges. A rusty Acco fastener holds part of the file together.
- Reconstructing the Past: The National Personnel Record Center Fire of 1973 by Michael Strauss posted September 28, 2022 on Fold3.
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“It's been 50 years since the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) fire, and the National Archives and the nation...
Posted by US National Archives on Tuesday, July 11, 2023Tuesday, July 11, 2023 post by the US National Archives on Facebook:
“It's been 50 years since the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) fire, and the National Archives and the nation are still recovering from the ashes. I’ve seen firsthand the extraordinary lengths our staff in St. Louis go to every day to piece back together the records our veterans and their families need. It's a sobering reminder of both how important and how fragile our mission can be,” said Dr. Colleen Shogan, Archivist of the United States.
On the anniversary of the NPRC fire, the National Archives has created a new Special Topics page sharing its most comprehensive effort to document the history and resources available to understand the NPRC fire, its aftermath, and the changes it led to in policies and procedures. The new page contains records and resources related to the fire, including an extensive ongoing oral history project from the National Archives Historian, images from the St. Louis Preservation Lab of how staff work with burned records, a one-page fact sheet, and a quick access link to requesting veterans’ records online.
Learn more about these new resources on the Remembering the 1973 NPRC Fire Special Topics Page:
https://www.archives.gov/.../2023-nprc-fire-anniversary
Image: Records on the 6th floor being recovered months after the fire, in 1973.
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July 12, 2023 post by Today's Document on Facebook:
On July 12, 1973, a fire on the sixth floor of the National Archives’ Military Personnel Records Center destroyed over 16 million Official Military Personnel Files.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7386462
Record Group 64: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration
Series: Photographs Relating to the Fire at the Military Personnel Records Center in 1973Image description: A long, six-story building. The window frames on the sixth floor are bent and warped from heat, and smoke is coming out of some of the openings. Fire truck ladders are reaching up to aim water at the fire.
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July 13, 2023 post by the US National Archives on Facebook:
Go behind the scenes to see the National Personnel Records Center's new state-of-the-art preservation lab. In 1973, a fire in NPRC's former building destroyed an estimated 16 to 18 million military personnel files. Six million more were recovered with varying degrees of fire and water damage. As individual files are requested, preservation technicians painstakingly treat the documents for damage and mold.
Preservation Lab at the National Archives, St. Louis video on YouTube
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August 21, 2023 post by the US National Archives on Facebook:
The disastrous fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in 1973 not only destroyed millions of military personnel records, but the after-effects had long-term repercussions on the facility and the National Archives staff.
Despite employees being permitted to return to the building after two months, the facility had undergone significant changes due to the fire. Personnel reported that the building still smelled like a fire long after it had been cleaned. The sixth floor suffered considerable damage and was demolished, with a new roof built in its place. As a result, there was less storage and office space than before.
A 1977 General Services Administration (GSA) study revealed that many other facilities had similar risks as the NPRC. The report detailed how these other locations could mitigate the risks of a fire. Unfortunately, there is no way to completely stop the risks and in 1978 a fire broke out in one of the vaults at the Washington National Records Center in Suitland, MD, destroying 12 million feet of newsreel.
In 2011, The NPRC moved to a new facility in St. Louis. Staff relocated over a hundred million records from the old facility, including burnt records. Even though the location has changed, there are dedicated teams assigned to answering requests for records that were damaged in the fire.
Learn more about the aftermath of the 1973 fire on the Pieces of History blog:
National Personnel Records Center Fire Series: The Aftermath