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)

98 Mr. Ingram. Finally, I will read into the record the response that we received from the OSHA people which we will have an opportunity, once both the subcommittee and the Archives receive further details of this, to go into further. For the benefit of the subcommittee, briefly, OSHA found : One, the physical structure of the film laboratory, its locations, and the deficiencies in fire suppression and fire exit requirements could cause serious harm to both Federal employees and the public in the event of a nitrate film fire in the laboratory. Two, the laboratory processing, the film load, and its handling have been such that it is possible to have a serious nitrate fire there. Three, although the decomposition products of nitrate film are known to be toxic, there have been no industrial hygiene surveys of exposures to Federal employees who work with the film. Four, the structural deficiencies in the Suitland film vaults were discussed in the GSA reports of 1957 and 1973. Very little upgrading resulted from the reports except for the aborted deluge system for building A vaults. Since 1977, GSA plans called for major correction, but these have not been completed, and at this time the facility is still exposed to the hazard of nitrate film fires. Dr. Rhoads, I wondered, finally, whether you are familiar with the OSHA requirements which are that, following an accident in a facility with a loss in excess of $100,000, there is a report which must be filed with OSHA within 3 days. As far as we can determine, that report has not been filed, although the loss, according to the GSA fire inspection team, was fixed at approximately $131,000. So, if you are not aware of that, the OSHA people may be calling that to your attention. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Preyer. Thank you. Mr.Morr? Mr. MoRR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My basic concern is with the status of the film that is left, as a result of the 1978 fire. I believe that you indicated the film is inspected semiannually. When was the last time that the film currently stored there was inspected ? Mr. Moore. We inspected all the film right after the fire, in January. We inspected all the film that was on the truck in April. That was 3 million feet salvaged from A building. I should point out that, among the 3 million feet that survived the fire, there was not a single roll of deteriorated film. We are now — 6 months since January — reinspecting the film in C building. That is going on right now. Mr. MoRR. Let me ask you this. When you inspected in January, and as you are inspecting now, what portion of the nitrate film collection had decomposed to a point that you felt it was not safe to keep it ? Mr. Moore. The film collections have been in very good condition. Our reports show that minimal amounts of footage have been found with incipient deterioration. I do not believe we found any advanced deterioration. Mr. MoRR. Do you have a process to assign priority to films that should be converted ? Mr. Moore. Yes. That works several ways. In terms of the Universal collection, Ave have concentrated on the released stories — the edited stories — first. Then, we have gone to a selection of the outtakes. Mr. MoRR. Does your process factor in any decompensation of the film?