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Archives Fires



Title: Archives Fires
I've always held that every archives needs an occasional fire now and then to provide some plausible deniability for records someone doesn't wish to release to the public or that the records center just plain can't find.  Something like:  "Oh, those records were probably destroyed in "the great fire of 2000"".  Anyone who has investigated the GI A-Bomb veterans, for example, knows what I'm talking about.  It isn't necessary that a lot of records are destroyed, just enough so that anything missing or troublesome that arises after that date can be said to have "probably been destroyed in the fire".

Michael Ravnitzky
mikerav@ix.netcom.com

National Archives and Records Administration Statement on Records
Center Fire
To: National Desk
Contact: National Archives Public Affairs, 301-713-6000
WASHINGTON, March 1, /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following is a
statement from John W. Carlin, archivist of the United States,
on the Feb. 29 Records Center Fire:
Yesterday (Tuesday, Feb. 29), the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) reported a fire in its Washington National
Records Center in Suitland, Md. The fire was contained by the
Center's fire-safety system and extinguished with no reports of
harm to staff or visitors, but some records were damaged. The
following is an update on that from Archivist of the United States
John Carlin.