THE QUESTING HEIRS ARCHIVE 

LAPL Arson Fire of 1986

Wikipedia tell us “[t]he catalyst for building renovation [of the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library] was the devastating arson fire of April 29, 1986. Although the building was safely evacuated, its vintage construction precluded the ventilation of heat and smoke, and limited firefighter access. Some 400,000 volumes—20 percent of the library’s holdings—were destroyed, with significant water and smoke damage done to the surviving works. A second fire on September 3 of the same year destroyed the contents of the music department reading room. [F]unds to replace these books were raised through corporate and personal contributions which flowed from the effort of the ‘Save The Books’ campaign.”

photo: Wikimedia Commons public domain

Questing Heirs Genealogical Society has always stepped up to the plate when crises like this occur; so, it is no surprise to learn that QHGS gave money to the “Save the Books” campaign mentioned above. A list of donors published in the Los Angeles Times of December 22, 1986, names our Society as one of the contributors to this fund.

For more information about the LAPL fires, consult “Remembering the Day the Library Burned,” by Glen Creason, Map Librarian at Central Library. This article is posted on the L. A. Downtown News website at http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/remembering-the-day-the-library-burned/article_4b7f9458-8b3e-11e1-93a8-0019bb2963f4.html. Another description of the fire is on the Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Society website at http://www.lafdmuseum.org/fires_la-library.

RESEARCH NOTE: Los Angeles was not the only city to suffer book losses from fire. Our own Long Beach Library’s fire in 1972 was just as devastating. QHGS members volunteered many hours to help clean up. After a new library was constructed at the downtown civic center in 1976, our Society donated over $4,000 worth of books to its genealogy section.