Document Restoration - Case Studies

Client: Vienna University of Economics and Business administration

Location: Vienna, Austria.

Incident: Fire in the Library

BELFOR in action after University Fire

Shortly before Christmas, a fire breaks out in the library housed at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. It is to turn into one of the country’s biggest ever blazes.

Arsonists destroy library

The university, with 20,000 students, is the biggest in Austria. It houses a large number of workplaces, large computer rooms and the country’s biggest business library. Arsonists started a fire in the library rooms located in the basement, with catastrophic effects: building structures in the basement, escape routes, ceilings, walls and service lines suffered massive contamination and, in some cases, heat-related damage. The fire hit the heart of any university: the library. Over 200,000 books were covered in greasy soot and smelled strongly of smoke. In this difficult situation, the university management, the insurers and the appraisers turned to BELFOR – with a remit to clean up and restore the library.

One hundred experts from 11 countries

Under the leadership of the Austrian managing director, an international team was set up. Up to 100 BELFOR colleagues from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey were in action around the clock from Christmas onwards.

To allow teaching to begin provisionally, the team first decontaminated sections of the building, especially the escape routes, in an operation lasting until 9 January. It repaired the service and utility lines and, above all, cleaned the library’s collection of 10,000 textbooks.

From manual work to ozone chamber:
Knowing what helps

It was a time-consuming job. The experts treated each book individually by hand, using brushes, special sponges from America and fine abrasives in a pressure blasting process. The spines, covers and edges of every book were carefully cleaned of soot and dust. To remove the fire smell, a large part of the book collection was placed in the ozone chamber, their pages fanned open. At last, the books were ready to be put back on the shelves. The job took four months from beginning to end. The clients placed great faith in BELFOR, and it was rewarded. BELFOR restored every part of the building, every workplace, every computer and every book to its original condition.