In a reading room to the immediate right of the main staircase on the second floor of the Georgetown Neighborhood Library, four bookshelves still displaying reading materials stand virtually unscathed.
Five steps away, amid the watery remnants of the children’s room, fire investigators are working in the sunshine — the roof is gone.
Two days after the historic 72-year-old branch of the D.C. public library went up in flames, District leaders stood outside the facility and pledged to restore it to its “historic grandeur.” The blaze caused an estimated $15 million to $20 million in damage, of which $7.2 million has already been identified for repairs.
“It is extremely important that we get this library back on line as quickly as possible,” Ward 2 D.C. Council Member Jack Evans said.
It is unknown how long the library rebuilding might take. Restoring Eastern Market, which suffered extensive damage in a separate three-alarm fire Monday, is expected to take two years.
As surplus revenues are identified, Mayor Adrian Fenty said his administration “will move both of these projects to the top of the priority list.”
Firefighters were praised for moving in as the library burned to remove rare historic documents, paintings, maps and ceramics from the Peabody Room, which still stands mainly intact to the left of the main staircase. Roughly 80 percent of the materials were saved — wet but not burned — and quickly moved to a freezer truck to prevent mold from setting in.
The worst of the damage befell the children’s room, which Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper called “a real mess.” Fire Chief Dennis Rubin offered Engine 5 as a temporary reading room for neighborhood youth.
Georgetown advisory neighborhood commissioner Ron Lewis praised responders.
“It’s sad but it’s also encouraging, because the fire department did an amazing job keeping the damage to the Peabody collection as little as possible,” he said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
