February 2024

Public Libraries and Fire Safety
Fire safety is crucial for all professions, but public libraries have unique considerations. The Los Angeles Public Library must learn from its past and implement fire safety standards to ensure the safety of all staff, library patrons, and our precious materials.


From our Emergency Preparedness Manager, Tom Jung:
FIRE ALARM ACTIVATIONS / BUILDING EVACUATIONS:  It is imperative that everyone (employees, patrons, contractors, and vendors) begin evacuation procedures immediately upon the 1st "Whoop" of a fire alarm or strobe light flashing and not wait for an announcement from Security.  Should a patron refuse to evacuate, please inform one of the Building Emergency Coordinator Assistants (wearing yellow vests), Floor Wardens (wearing red vests) or a member of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) upon your exit from the building. You should familiarize yourself with the emergency exits and always have an alternative exit route in the event the stairwell you are accustomed to using becomes impassible or its condition has deteriorated to a point where you feel unsafe in its use.

Central Library Fire
Source: https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/legacy-central-library-fire


On the morning of April 29, 1986, librarian Dan Dupill was answering telephone calls at the Literature Reference Desk at Central Library. The antiquated phone system was slow, and the volume of calls high in those pre-Internet days, so getting through to a Reference Librarian could be a challenge. When the emergency alert started going off, Dan figured it was another false alarm that had become commonplace at the 1926 building. Rather than hanging up on the patron, who had already navigated the phone system once, Dan offered to put them on hold, figuring he would be back in ten minutes. It would be seven years before he answered another phone call at Central Library. He has often wondered just how long the caller stayed on hold before realizing that the building was actually on fire.


Hollywood Branch Library Fire
Source: https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/dig-los-angeles-hollywood-branch-los-angeles-public-library


According to library reports and newspaper accounts, the Hollywood Branch Library was plugging along as a library does–until the morning of April 13, 1982. Unknown persons broke in through windows in the back of the library and proceeded to have a party before starting a fire behind the circulation desk. It was estimated that the library burned for at least an hour before anyone noticed. According to the Firemen’s Grapevine, it took fifteen companies of firefighters one hour and twenty-two minutes to put out the blaze. The library was destroyed, more than two-thirds of its books burned, and one-of-a-kind special collections up in smoke, including the library’s entire Theatre Arts Collection.

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