LOS ANGELES, CA — The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum was surrounded by wildfire Wednesday morning, prompting a frantic firefighting effort to protect the repository of historic artifacts.
The library holds more than 60 million pages of documents and 1.6 million photographs covering Reagan’s life and administration along with the Air Force One jet of the Reagan era. Library officials said the collections are well-protected, and a small group of staff members remained on site. But the flames licked up the hillside surrounding the building, and superscoopers and helicopters relentlessly dropped water to protect the treasures. The air drops created a smoky rainbow over the library, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“It’s a pretty tough situation here,” the library’s executive director, John Heubusch, told KTLA5. “There’s never been fires this close to the library. It’s a place of a national treasure and the flames are licking right up against it.”
The Reagan Library is popular destination for Southland residents, and it remained closed as the flames from the Easy Fire licked at the edges of the property.
Heubusch noted the library has an aggressive brush-clearance program to help protect the complex from fires, including the annual use of hundreds of goats that chew away at the vegetation surrounding the facility.
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Library officials said the facility was built to provide protection from fire, and all of the sensitive documents and photographs are kept in a fire-proof vault. The museum itself is also equipped with fire doors in case flames managed to penetrate the actual building.
As of midday, the flames were held at bay after the fire largely encircled the hilltop landmark.
Heubusch told reporters he had never seen flames advance so close to the museum before.
“Right now the fire is encircling the Air Force One pavilion where obviously the famous Air Force One sits,” he told CBS2 around mid-morning. “It’s a national treasure. So hopefully the heroes out here and the helicopters and trucks that have surrounded the library — they’re doing a magnificent job. So far the library’s been protected. But we’re surrounded on all sides by the fire right now.”
City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.
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