Burn Baby Burn: Experiments with Fire Damage

It’s a Monday at the house museum, and you’ve been in the on-site storage room since six am. You’re tired, your coffee hasn’t kicked in yet, and you still have an awful lot of work to do before opening the doors for the public today. There are some new acquisitions on your desk, along with several objects you need to accession into the collection, including books, photographs, nitrate film negatives, and slides. There’s just so much to do. You’ve got several donation boxes around your desk, and you have no idea what exactly is inside some of them. You leave your desk for four whole minutes to go get a glass of water, and when you get back, the worst thing imaginable has happened--- Fire. Fire in your storage room, in the house museum you serve, and the fire is already out of your control.

For us, this small scenario was our fire set-up. Within a five by ten foot burn room located at the Austin Fire Department Training Facility, we simulated this storage room fire to understand what might happen to a small house museum, archive, or private collection if a fire were to break out.

Our room is five by ten feet. The desk is against the left wall, and to the right side of it in the back left corner of the room is a trash bin. On top of the desk are an open book, sealed books, a closed container, photos, plastic sheet, slides, and photos, along with a bookcase. Inside the book case are many books, along with some VHS tapes, nitrate film negatives, and photographs. By the back wall are two donation boxes, one a plastic crate and the other a cardboard box. The plastic crate is closer to the left where the trash bin is located and the cardboard box is two feet away from the plastic crate. To the left of the desk on the floor and along the right wall are rolled papers and various art media. A sketch hangs framed with glass on the back wall. The entire space lacks a fourth wall-- like a theater, we can watch from the outside.

For our experiments, however, we arranged our room and watched as the fire spread. In our five by ten foot burn room, we arranged a desk with shelving, filled the drawers of the desk (with one kept open on purpose), a trash bin, two open donor boxes (one cardboard, the other plastic), two closed boxes, a stack of rolled papers, a canvas sitting on the floor, and framed print hanging on the wall.

Before the Main Fire Experiment:

Pre-Experimentation: Before the burn experiments was this minor experimentation, demonstrating how difficult it is to burn a closed book.

Even with fire applied directly to the book, there was only smoke damage. This is quite easy to clean off.

The Burn Site: Before the Fire

The left side of the room contained most of our materials, including: desk with bookcase and assorted items on top, assorted rolled papers and media on either side of the desk, two donation boxes, the framed sketch.

The right side of the room was sparce, as we knew the origin of the fire would be in the far left corner of the room in the waste bin. To this side of the room was a poster, an office chair, a piece of decorative art made of wood and glass, and the remnants of previous burns from the space. This room has been used for burn experiments before.

Yours truly for scale: I'm 5'10''.

We elected to start the fire in the back, right-hand corner of the room where we had placed a diverse arrangement of objects. We did this to satisfy our curiosity about specific types and configurations of materials. Lt. Elmore lit a piece of paper in a wastebasket next to the desk and we watched. For the first few minutes there was little evidence of any combustion and several of us began to wonder if the paper had ignited. Finally the fire took hold, first producing puffs, then clouds of smoke, and then climbing  the wall, the right side of the desk, the plastic donation bin, and began severely charring the items kept at the right of the desk and the plastic donor box next to it. The shelving grew so hot that the items to the right of the bookcase caught fire.

Before the experiment began, we decided as a class that we would allow the fire to burn for twelve to fourteen minutes with time given to the usual steps of the fire detection and extinguishing process. There were three to five minutes allocated for a worker to detect the smoke from the fire then dial 911, four to five minutes for the fire department to arrive, then four minutes for the hose to get connected and begin extinguishing the fire. The times provided for the fire department’s response and hose connection are the average for the Austin Fire Department as Lt. Randy Elmore informed us. The times for your local fire department to reach your building and begin extinguishing a fire could be different.

The Burn Site: During the Burn

Four minutes in: We begin to see the fire visibly.

Ten minutes: We have backed up several feet by now from the intense heat.

Ten minutes: We asked Lt. Randy Elmoreto move the open book closer to the fire to see what would happen-- the damage was swift as soon as it entered range of the heat.

Twelve minutes and thirty seconds: Lt. Randy Elmore begins extinguishing.

Extinguishing overall takes a minute, but the room smoked for a long time after.

Our courageous assistant from the Austin Arson Department, Lt. Randy Elmore

We were working with a microcosm of a collection in a small space and the fire damaged more than half of our materials in only twelve minutes and thirty seconds. We decided to extinguish the fire before we had no materials left to salvage. Lt. Randy Elmore put out the fire in under thirty seconds, and additional small and rather hidden fires were put out as they appeared afterward. While he refrained from using an excessive amount of water in extinguishing the fire to prevent further damage to the collection, it was still necessary to drench some items in our collection to fully extinguish the flames.

The extent of the damage was beyond what we initially expected the open metal shelves grew so hot the materials combusted, and the closed drawers of the desk became small ovens for the materials inside.

• The back right leg of the desk was completely charred. The front right leg of the desk was barely left standing. It was remarkable the desk did not collapse.
• A drawer we had intentionally left open on the desk smoldered for ten minutes after the fire was put out. The closed drawers on the right side of the desk fared no better.
• The damage on the bookcase progressed from severely charred to undamaged moving across from right to left.
• All the items placed on the left side of the desk were fine. All items left on the right side of the desk or near the trash bin were decimated.
• The plastic crate half-melted away and half of the contents were burned to ash. The cardboard crate was fine.

The Burn Site: After the Burn

This was a panel painting, leaning on the desk to the right of the book case, all of a foot above the epicenter of the fire. Notice the smoke stain around where the object protected the wall.

These sealed books sat the the right bottom corner of the desk. Their plastic seal did nothing to prevent the charing.

The desk overall

Close-up of the bookcase. There's a visual gradient change of smoke damage from right to left-- a clear indicator of where the fire originated.

The heat was so intense, the glass broke in the frame. Only where the glass left the paper exposed did damage occur.

This donor box was closest to the fire.

This donor box was only two feet away from the melted plastic crate donor box-- nearly untouched.

For several minutes after the fire was put out, we were not allowed to enter the building. For a fire with less ventilation than our test site, the time would have been significantly longer. Burning plastics may emit toxic gasses, and the odors emanating from the burned materials was very strong. In the case of a real fire scenario, personnel can be withheld from a building by fire-fighter order for hours or days if necessary.

The next morning, we were allowed access again to retrieve our materials from the room, as any and all nauseous gasses were dispelled over night. I was unable to observe retrieval. Crystal Paul, however, was able to observe and assist, and here is her account:

William, Karen, and I went to the site at around 9am on Friday. We ended up discarding about 1/3 of the materials, mostly items that either hadn't been damaged and were duplicates of other items or were beyond salvage. Surprisingly, some items closest to the fire were salvageable, such as the open law book on the desk. Some pages were burnt to a crisp but most were still intact.

There was a set of slides that had been in the middle of the desk that were completely melted and destroyed, even though they were not directly affected by the fire (the fire got close to them). Items in the drawers closest to the fire were surprisingly unaffected by fire and in fact, were more damaged by the water. The waste basket was no more, and the items that were in it and next to it (papers and a couple nooks) were the only things I saw that completely crumbled.

The next exciting step in our journey is recovery-- we shall see how well the materials fared, and how much will be retrievable. The subsequent water damage from the hose could lead to molding, just as our flood experiments have molded. Before we focus more closely on specific recovery techniques for collection materials, the next blog will go into more detail about first steps to take when you are allowed back into the building after the firefighters give the “all clear.”

Flood Recovery of Hard Drives

When flood strikes, everything can go. Typically, when archives personnel think ‘flood,’ thoughts might go straight to the 19th century newspapers, rare and unique manuscripts, or other paper materials. Today, these thoughts must include computers and other electronic devices as well. The digital back-ups, the photocopies, the expensive hard drives and software connected to specific licensing keys are equally affected by flood and can also be salvaged.

After a flood, there are a few basic things to consider: make sure all electronics are dry before turning on the device. A good rule is to shut down all power within the vicinity until the water is gone. Secondly, classify what type of water you are facing--grey or black water is hazardous at best, and can be extremely damaging to your equipment. Approach any flood with caution and understanding-- the toxicity of the water may be too much for you or your institution to handle. Thirdly, if you want to access the data within your now-damaged computer, you MUST remove your hard drive from the computer and treat it separately from the rest of the computer. A computer can be expensive, but it is wholly replaceable, and after a computer goes through water damage, it can no longer be trusted to fulfill basic tasks. A computer can grow very hot, and any residues left inside from polluted water could cause the computer to fail, or possibly ignite.

In my mini experiments during the flood, I placed five hard drives, removed from their computers, straight into clean water, lake water, and oily lake water. Of the five, two were in oily lake water, two in lake water, and one in clean water. After twenty- four hours, I removed the two hard drives from the oily water, and one from the lake water. After a week, I removed the rest of the hard drives, from the lake and clean water. After removing the hard drives from contaminated or ‘grey’ or ‘black’ water, especially so for the oily water drives, I used goat soap to cut the oil that stuck to the hard drives, then rinsed down the outside of the drives with clean water from the tap with the least amount of water pressure possible. I rinsed all of the drives with clean water to remove surface contaminants, sans the drive that remained in clean water.

The next step was drying in rice. When removing excess water from the drives, especially water from within the device, it is important to allow water to seep out into an absorbent substance. Rice is cheap, plentiful, and small enough to reach into the small, open cavities of the hard drive, yet large enough to not get lodged into the drive or the reader slots. The first two drives I pulled were left submerged in rice for two weeks, while the third, fourth, and fifth drives I pulled were left in the rice for one week. While a few grains of rice grew mold, the plastics did not, and after assessing testing the relative humidity of the drives within closed containers, the drives were judged to be relatively dry enough to test.

Inside of the plastic containers with red-rimmed lids are where the hard drives were dispersed to dry. In the two wide white plastic trays, a laptop and additional drives were left to dry.

A drive after being pulled from rice. The 'fuzzy' grains of rice are mold ridden, but there were not many of them, nor did their state of mold affect the drive.

Another pulled drive with grains of rice still attached. I removed any grains that held on with a micro-spatula.

To test how affected the drives were, I used a computer that, besides lacking a hard drive, was completely fine, yet wholly disposable. When testing water-damaged electronics, recognize the danger. After any amount of water affects an electronic device, all data may be totally gone or the device may be inoperable. You may never get back what is on that computer, so operate with care and low expectations.

In testing, I took baby steps-- instead of plugging the drive into the computer then going straight to on, I wanted to see how the drive was going to power up-- within all computer hard drives is an internal battery to help with start-up, and if that battery is damaged, the drive is gone. I plugged the drive into the system, keeping the test computer isolated and close to a fire extinguisher. I then, with the computer plugged into a surge protector, turned the computer on. I left the side panel of the computer open in order to openly observe the drive. Without a monitor to watch, nor a keyboard nor mouse, I was only testing to see if the computer could maintain power with the hard drive spinning for five minutes. Hard drives that are not solid-state, or a solid single card, are like CD’s, they spin and turn to access their information. If a hard drive is properly working, you can actually FEEL the hard drive going through it’s proper cycles. All I did was turn the computer on and leave my hand on the drive, feeling for the spin and listening carefully to the turn.

Three of the drives that I pulled from the waters after twenty-four hours powered perfectly. There was never a hitch in the sound or the buzz of the drive working. With the other two drives, there were significant problems. The drive that had been in lake water for seven days gave a god-awful sound akin to a record skipping a beat in a track again and again. With the drive from seven-days of clean water, there was a single hitch of the drive turning and one loud pop, then the drive went about it’s cycles again though it was very slow.

All I wanted to test was the potential of the drive. The next step after this would be to attempt to start the computer through to operation and try and access the files within. While all the hard drives I dipped into water had information on them, they all lacked operating systems-- No Windows 7, no Apple OS X, nothing. I used the drives as one would use an external drive, like a thumb drive, because it simplified the checking process-- there was less for the system to fail with if only a few files were affected by the water instead of total system failure. There is still also a great danger in handling hard drives that may still be coated in caustic chemicals, and I would heartily refrain from heating the drives from oil and lake water for extended periods of time or at very high temperatures as the insides of a computer can get especially hot.

Finally, a laptop was left to soak in clean water for seven days. Upon removal from the water, it was placed into a container filled with rice. After a week of draining, several people worked to extricate the hard drive from the laptop. While they were successful, the water inside the laptop was trapped inside after the flood with no chance to escape. The water held inside ate away at the hard drive’s battery and leaked out onto the front of the drive. I would not attempt to start this drive no matter what. If you believe that your electronics are releasing battery acid, DO NOT TOUCH THEM. If you come in contact with battery acid, wash exposed skin immediately and keep any affected surfaces contained until it can be cleaned up. You can safely clean away battery acid with gloves and soapy water, but show adequate caution when around it.

Overall, the hard drives came through with flying colors. Despite the crude nature of the water these drives went through, fast response kept the drives going even after complete submersion. If you can not get to your equipment within a 24-48 hour window, not all hope is lost, but you need to focus on removing the contaminants from the drive and then allowing the water to work it’s way out.

When dealing with electronics, realize that you may not have the equipment or expertise to properly recover your information. In order to avoid further damage to the contents, or toxic exposure to yourself, get in contact with a company that specializes in information recovery. In these situations, also consider how replaceable the information is. If you have undamaged backups, it may be safer and more cost-effective to safely dispose of the damaged hard drives.

Polygon Visit

A Visit From Polygon

For our October 16th class we took a break from destroying and salvaging materials and listened to an informative presentation from Summer Street about Polygon’s Document Recovery services. Polygon is a global provider of temporary humidity control and property performance services and is a market leader in property damage restoration. Polygon is a private lab focusing on commercial work in industries like health care facilities and hospitals, commercial and retail, libraries and museums, schools and universities, and government agencies.  For more information about Polygon visit http://www.polygongroup.com/us/document-recovery/

At this time, Polygon focuses on physical restoration of documents rather than digital restoration and recovery. In the presentation, Street talked about basic disaster risks, provided us with a past scenario in which a disaster occurred, and some of the document recovery methods that Polygon offers.

First, we talked about the most common disaster risks: fire, mold, and water. In Street’s disaster scenario, an unnamed New York firm’s three sub-basements had been flooded with seawater, fuel, sewage, and organic material during Hurricane Sandy. Over 30,000 boxes filled with highly sensitive materials were damaged. In the aftermath of the disaster:

Here is what they did correctly:

1. Called Polygon document restoration center as soon as possible
2. Authorized implementation of the stabilization of documents immediately
3. Allowed priority records to be packed out and frozen before they were able to incur further damage

 Here is what they could have done better:

1. There were no priority documents or sections designated before the disaster
2. There was no plan for disposing of damaged or unneeded documents

Street also provided us with a Document Checklist with a list of questions to consider in disaster planning or during recovery.

 Document Checklist

• Are there vital records?
• Is there a current retention schedule for documents?
• How long are records kept before they are discarded or destroyed?
• What are priority items?
• Is there a current disaster plan?
• How are records currently being stored?
• Is restoration the best option? What are the limitations? What are your options for a recovery strategy?
• Are documents wet? Moldy?
• Are there concerns for health and safety?
• What are the documents stored in?
• Are there security requirements?
• If there is a disaster can things be destroyed instead of restored?

Last we talked about technologies Polygon currently uses for document recovery. In the case of a disaster, all materials should be frozen immediately if possible to halt further damage. Try to freeze damaged items within the range of 20 to 25 F, but only refrigerate film-based media. When Polygon responds to a disaster, they first create a detailed inventory during pack-out. Subsequently, customers are given the choice between the following:

Vacuum Freeze Drying: Freezing and drying records in a vacuum chamber where frozen water is removed by sublimation, bypassing the liquid water phase.

Pros of vacuum freeze drying include:

• Allows batch processing
• No “wet” phase which reduces the risk of inks bleeding and paper cockling
• There is no heat so over-drying is not a problem
• Low cost and lower margins for human error

 Cons include:

• Vacuum freeze drying  can not be done on site because industrial freezers are required
• Longer processing time frame, could be months not weeks
• Equipment scarcity and limited accessibility

Desiccant Dehumidification: Using a dehumidifier that blows dry air throughout a room or area, allowing wet documents to dry

Pros of desiccant dehumidification include:

• Process is both portable and scalable
• Ability to provide on-site access to materials
• This process is good for business papers, X-Rays, and photos.

 Cons of desiccant dehumidification

• It is expensive.

Air Drying: Process of drying materials through contact with air

Pros of air drying include:

• Process is scalable and good for most materials
• Accessibility–on-site access is usually possible
• Over-drying not possible
• The relative humidity can be controlled

 Cons include:

• Higher mold potential without stabilization
• Not good for clay-coated papers
• Labor intensive and results dependent on skill of the laborer

The recovery method used will depend on a business’ salvage priorities, the type of document and the extent of the damage. Disasters are also classified by Polygon from Level One to Level Five with five being the most severe disaster recovery scenario. Polygon pricing is based on cubic ft., drying type requested, cleaning level requested, whether documents need to deodorized, disinfected, or gamma-irritated, and the overall labor and pack-out needed to process materials. Gamma radiation is used to sterilize dirty documents to where they are safe enough to handle. Gamma radiation leaves no residue or visible changes to processed documents and is simple, reliable, and low cost.

Overall, Street emphasized that early planning for a disaster, before a disaster does occur, is the best step you can take. Most simply, have a plan, be educated about potential recovery options, and keep a clean house and updated inventory of your items.

Flood Recovery of Audio Visual Housings

In the flood simulation, we put several different kinds of audio visual housings into the different types of flood water. None of the cases were completely unharmed by the water, but some of them were still salvageable.

• Cardboard VHS box (in oily water) -- a little discoloration and warping, biggest problem is the oil left on it. Not all of the oil would come off the box and the oil seemed to seal moisture into the cardboard. This box would need to be discarded.


• Plastic VHS housing (in lake water) -- in the salvaging process, we removed the plastic (that was holding the paper insert) and let the paper insert dry on top of the container (lower right in the image). The insert has some cockling, but would likely be fine if it were humidified, flattened, and cleaned. The container was left to dry propped on its opening on blotter paper. The container would need to be cleaned to get the dirt from the lake off of it, but then could be used again.


• Plastic VHS housing (in clean water) -- we did not remove plastic film from the outside of the case, which caused more discoloration and more severe cockling than the other plastic case. This type of case would likely be salvageable after cleaning it. The paper insert might be saved if it is humidified, flattened, and cleaned.


• CD jewel case -- one of these was put in the water with the plastic wrapping still intact. When we removed it from the water, the plastic wrapping inhibited the water from draining out of the case. The plastic wrapping would need to be removed promptly after removing it from the item in order to prevent further damage to the CD.


• Plastic cassette case -- similar to the other plastic cases above, this type would likely be salvageable after the paper insert was humidified, flattened, and cleaned and the container itself was also cleaned.

Sorting Through the Mess: Continued Flood Salvage

This week we continued last week’s flood salvage, but in some ways, it felt more like the calm after the storm. There was not the same chaotic energy there had been the week before when we were trying to get everything out of the water. So, with calmer minds and without facemasks taped to our faces or the overpowering smell of mold hanging in the air, we started to look through the items we had set out to dry.

Some of our salvage efforts worked well: 

 Loose-leaf paper we had interleaved with blotter and laid flat to dry looked good.

Some of the books that we interleaved with blotter paper dried out very well.

A phone charger we had put in rice to dry was fine and was able to charge a phone.

The photographs mostly stayed in the condition they were in when we took them out of the flood. If the image had been damaged, it obviously stayed damaged and those photos are now just dry and damaged. But the photographs that didn’t have damaged images when we removed them from the flood dried out very well and look quite good now.

Unfortunately, not all of our salvage efforts worked. This week, like last, involved throwing a lot of things out. Some of the items were simply too damaged by the flood, and we could not fix them. For example, the ink ran on some of the blueprints and manuscripts we flooded, and some of the photographs were too damaged by the flood for us to save them. 

More interestingly, some of the salvage failures were due to our own actions. Going through these items was a great way to reconsider what we would do in a future flood. Some of our biggest problems were:

Books drying in weird shapes. We were very focused on getting books spread out to dry but we sometimes contorted books into convoluted shapes, and we did not replace the blotter papers often enough, so many books retained their weird shapes as they dried. 

Book pages sticking together. One of the books was made of clay-coated paper, and because we left blocks of pages closed together, they dried that way and are now stuck together. 

Damage to the panel painting while trying to clean it. The biggest area of damage to the panel painting is in the bottom right corner. That damage is not from the floodwater but from the pressure from the clean water we used when we tried to rinse the painting off. 

Finally, we also looked at the electronics and media we flooded. We didn’t get a chance to test them to see if they still work, so we won’t know the extent of our salvage success or failure there until later. We did dissect the computer we flooded in order to remove the hard drive and found some interesting things there. As we took apart the computer, we found that the battery had leaked and there was mold growing inside the computer.

We removed the hard drive and are letting it dry, so time will tell if the data can be saved. We also noticed a possible downside of the rice-drying method if we had wanted to save the entire computer. Rice stuck in the ports on the side of the computer and in some areas started molding. It looks really difficult, if not impossible to clean, so this is something to think about if you wanted to save a whole device, and not just the hard drive inside.

While we continue salvaging our flooded objects, we will prepare for our next disaster: the fire. In a couple of weeks, we will simulate a fire in a small house museum. We will take a collection of items similar to our flooded objects to the Austin Fire Department’s training facility, and set up the items in a small room also known as a “burn cell.” A small fire will be lit in the room and allowed to burn for a predetermined amount of time. The fire will be extinguished and we will see what we can save!

The Aftermath of Experimental Floods: Salvaging Our Materials

This week we salvaged the materials that had soaked in lake water, clean tap water, and water contaminated with motor oil.  These materials had been placed in their respective bath for a designated time period, for example 2 days, 5, days, or 7 days, to illustrate the severity of the damage water can cause.

In preparation for salvaging the wets materials, we took safety precautions before we entered the room.  The materials had been in water for several days and most likely were covered with mold and mildew. In order to protect ourselves, we made sure to have protective face gear. We were instructed about the full range of personal protective equipment (PPE), from head to toe. However we decided that face and hand protection were satisfactory for our situation. Each member of the salvage team wore a respirator or taped a face mask taped to his or her face; some wore protective gloves.

We also made sure each person knew their duties while in the flooded area to ensure chaos or mistakes were avoided. Here was our roster:

•  Lead conservators – Michael and Crystal 
• Registrar and Curator – William 
• Safety Officer – Megan
• Media Specialists – Shanda, Megan, Alia, Karen
• Field Workers – Bridgette, Jamie, Alia, Sarah, Megan, Shanda, and William 
• Supervisor - Karen

We also wanted to have a plan about how we either salvaged our discarded items. The order was as follows:

1) Remove moldy items and evaluate the extent and severity of mold damage.

2) Remove items in cardboard boxes, plastic boxes, and metal trays.

3) Remove paintings.

4) Remove the electronics.

5) Remove books and other print materials.

We began with the materials submerged in clean tap water, moved on to items in then lake water, and lastly dealt with objects in the oily water.

Many items were not salvageable, especially if they had severe accumulations of mold.  We did retain several moldy specimens for experimentation. 

Some common methods we used were:

• Isolating items, especially mold damaged objects, in clean plastic bags or plastic containers
• Drying objects with blotting paper, paper towels and newsprint
• Packing electronic materials in rice to dry
• Arranging items to air dry      

 


 

You can view this short video produced by the Northeast Museum Services Center if you’d like to see example salvage techniques we employed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQctO6LHo1o

The very last thing we remembered to do is clean! It is so important to remove items that cannot be salvaged, old (and probably moldy!) water, and also to sanitize our containers and surfaces that materials were either placed in or on. We did not want to risk the spread of mold to non-contaminated areas in the lab area.  

Rising Waters: Setting Up the Experimental Floods

Our first experimental set-up tested various flood conditions that we believed most institutions would likely encounter. We drew inspiration from personal experiences, usually involving leaking pipes and Texas’ penchant for sudden heavy rains that turn into sudden heavy flash floods. We selected a variety of materials to use in the experiment including books, vinyl records, VHS tapes, paintings, and electronic equipment. So what do you do when you walk into work to find out a sprinkler pipe burst all over the shelves housing your rare books? How do you begin salvaging your collection after thunderstorms sweep floodwaters through your institution? These are the questions we sought to answer by “flooding” items under controlled conditions. Our flood will extend over the course of a week, at the end of which we will explore salvage methods.

We began by sorting the materials we gathered for the experiment. Our goal was to have a sample of each material in each flood situation we created. Two cardboard boxes were set up containing a variety of disorganized materials. These were designed to represent backlogged materials which in smaller institutions might be stored in more flood prone areas such as the basement due to space constraints. Other items were left loose in the plastic trays that would hold the flood waters.

In addition to different storage situations, we experimented with different levels of water contamination. Four of the trays were filled with regular tap water to simulate what happens when you walk in and discover that a pipe broke over the weekend. One of the disorganized cardboard boxes was halfway immersed in one of the trays. Another tray held a laptop and hard drive. Despite the increased interest in digital media and materials, the resources for salvaging electronics in the event of disaster is not as well documented, and this will give us the opportunity to experiment with rescuing data in the event of physical calamity. The last two trays held materials in shallower levels of water to simulate the puddle effect of a small leak rather than a major plumbing disaster. The other materials were put in a more natural flood simulation. For that we needed dirty water. Rather than just mixing tap water with a bag of potting soil, one of our classmates was thoughtful enough to bring in several gallons of water from Ladybird Lake. The remaining materials, including the second box of miscellaneous items, were submerged in lake water. Particulates in the water will present their own challenges as they adhere to pages and stick in the nooks and crannies of our materials. We are especially interested in whether or not the VHS tapes, cassettes, and hard drives can be cleaned of enough residue to be usable. The last tray held lake water covered in a film of motor oil. Given that asphalt absorbs oil that drips from our vehicles, if there is a flood, the waters will collect the oil from the street, which adds a whole new dimension to the damage being wreaked on a collection.

Our final step in designing the experiment was to decide how long until the flood waters “receded”. As our instructor pointed out, in the event of a natural flood, it could be days before the collection becomes accessible for treatment. For a burst pipe, ideally it would be discovered and remedied much more quickly. Based on this window of time and due to lab access constraints, materials were left soaking for a minimum of four days. By staggering our removal times over the course of the week, we not only hoped to simulate a wider variety of scenarios, but to push the envelope in regards to recoverability. At what time will the point of no return occur for salvaging materials? We aren’t sure, but we intend to find out.