By way of followup to yesterday's post on the fire at the Georgetown branch of the D.C. Public Library: ABC 7 News in D.C. reports today that archivists are "sorting through the historic artifacts that were stored at the Georgetown branch, trying to determine what can be salvaged."
The latest AP report notes that some artwork was removed from the building by firefighters, including a painting by Yaro Mamout which may be salvageable. The Washington Post adds that the second-floor Peabody Room which housed the library's Georgetown history collection seems to have been largely destroyed by the blaze; branch manager Mary Hernandez is quoted as saying "The second floor is gone."
The cause of the fire remains undetermined. It took more than two hundred firefighters to get the fire under control yesterday afternoon, and much of the building remains inaccessible.
