National Archives and Records Service film-vault fire at Suitland, Md. : hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, first session, June 19 and 21, 1979 (1979)

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72 STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES B. RHOADS, ARCHIVIST OP THE UNITED STATES, NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE; ACCOMPANIED BY JAMES W. MOORE, AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES DIVISION, OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, NARS; WILLIAM MURPHY, CHIEF, MOTION PICTURE AND SOUND RECORDING BRANCH, AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES DIVISION, OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, NARS; JOHN J. LANDERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ARCHIVES; MELVIN C. HUDSON, SAFETY PROJECT DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER, NAVAL ORDNANCE STATION, INDIAN HEAD, MD. Dr. Khoads. With your indulgence, Mr. Chairman, I would like to mention, first of all, that, in addition to having the same three colleagues with me as appeared with me on Tuesday — Mr. Landers, Mr. Moore, and Mr. Murphy — I also have with me Mr. Melvin Hudson who is a civilian physicist and professional engineer working for the Navy who supervised the tests of nitrate film for us that were recently completed at Indian Head, Md. He is completing his report, but I thought I would bring him along in case you might wish to ask him any questions. He is sitting on the front row, immediately behind me. I would like to make just a few additions to my response when the hearing was recessed on Tuesday. First of all, I want to be sure that there are the best possible working arrangements between our facilities and the local fire departments. Our administrative people have talked with the accident and fire protection specialist in the Public Buildings Service in the last 2 days on this subject, and it was agreed that meetings would be held with the Prince Georges County Fire Department at Suitland and the District of Columbia Fire Department at the Archives Building to make absolutely certain that there is maximum communication and cooperation to prevent any future fires and, should the unforeseen unhappily occur, to fight them efficiently. There has been cooperation between oru people and the fire department. The District fire officials, for example, have been through the main Archives Building from top to bottom. But we want to be sure, as you do, that no effort is spared. Particular attention will be given to areas where the nitrate film is stored at Suitland and where the conversion process takes place in our laboratory in the main building. Those meetings will take place as soon as possible. Second, the Fire and Accident Prevention Branch in GSA's regional office has confirmed that the existing wet pipe sprinkler system, which they had inspected in our reproduction laboratory, is adequate. A limited amount of nitrate film is there at any one time for conversion. However, here again, we want to be on the safe side, and we are going to ask the GSA fire safetv people to make a further study, and wc will also ask the advice of the District Fire Department. If a change to a deluge system is indicated, we will certainly have it done as expeditiously as possible. At the close of the hearings on Tuesday, you gave us a copy of the preliminary OSHA report on the survey of our nitrate film facilities