The Fire at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Part 1: Salvage, Initial Response, and the Implications for Disaster Planning

Abstract

A massive fire at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina, Canada, in 1990 demonstrated that the initial response phase following a fire is a crucial period when priorities are established and decisions are made that will determine the success of collection recovery. A chronology of the fire response shows the speed at which decisions are made within the chaotic aftermath of a disaster. At the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, several factors contributed to an environment that slowed the initial response to soot damage and hampered collection recovery. These factors are analyzed with respect to improving the position of collections recovery within the larger context of the recovery of the entire museum, its programs, and its public image. The museum conservators learned the importance of an overall view in disaster planning; in particular, they found that special attention must be paid to the balance of power during a disaster response because it will determine whether plans for collection recovery can be acted upon in a real disaster situation. During the fire response and recovery, museum conservators also learned about the unique characteristics of soot and developed effective procedures for the initial response to soot and the salvage of soot-covered objects. Details of soot removal and cleaning during the recovery phase are discussed in another article in this issue.

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