Good book

BELFOR were called into a residential property following a fire in a flat in East London. The fire started in the bedroom and set fire to the bedding; the fabric then smouldered instead of causing a roaring fire, and went unnoticed for approximately 8 hours. Due to the environment, the fire was starved of oxygen and as a consequence the smoke damage throughout the property was extensive with a thick layer of smoke settling all over the interior.

BELFOR’s main concern was the nine thousand books which were housed in the flat. The extensive library consisted of many rare and expensive editions, full collections, first editions and signed copies, some of which were no longer in print. The owner, who was a journalist, had a lifetime’s collection stored in his home, many of which not only held sentimental value, but were simply irreplaceable. It was imperative for BELFOR to restore as many books as possible, not to mention that in Insurance terms it was more economical to restore the items than to replace them. The decontamination of the salvageable books was approximately 20% of the cost of replacement.

Time was the overriding factor in order to reduce the damage to the books. Once the power had been restored and the flat made safe for entry, a sample book was taken to the BELFOR document restoration unit to be carefully restored.

After the client had checked the sample and approved the quality of the results, work could commence. It took a specialist team of four people, five days to sort through the books. The process was one of elimination and a decision made on a book by book basis, dependant on the level of damage. All books were carefully logged and packed into boxes to be shipped to BELFOR’s specialist document unit for restoration.

The main concern for the team was permanent soot stains. This is because with an oxygen rich fire the soot is fine and soft, like dust, and it can be almost guaranteed that books can be restored to a pre-incident state. However an oxygen deprived fire such as this one, leaves a heavier layer of ‘sticky’ soot which increases the risk of staining. Time was of the essence to reduce the level of permanent damage.

Restoration by hand was required and each book was cleaned meticulously page by page using specialist conservators equipment. However, some books needed to be sent to a specialist to be re-bound. It took an expert team of six people three weeks to decontaminate the 2000 books which had been saved. Once the restoration process was complete all books were returned to the owner, who was delighted with the results.