Staff from the UCT Jagger Library have been given a window of access to the building to remove any remaining works before they get further damaged.
Cape Town, South Africa (23 April 2021) – A wildfire broke out early on Sunday morning, 18 April 2021, at Rhodes Memorial and spread to UCT a short while later. The fire jumped and spread to the University of Cape Town (UCT) Reading Room at Jagger Library, which housed over 200 years worth of history.
Thankfully the library’s fire system kicked in, and only this part of the library was damaged. The system has prevented even further loss.
The loss of the Reading Room has been a massive one, but people are working tirelessly to try and restore some of the lost information.
A team from UCT were given a window last night to enter the building and to start collecting as much of its contents as possible. They took to Facebook to ask for donations of cardboard boxes and crates, which will be used to remove books and other items from the library.
They paused the removal and have picked back up this morning. So if anyone is able to donate boxes and crates, they ask that you please reach out to Nikki Crowster via Facebook here.
“We obtained an unexpected very small window of access to remove from the Jagger site, materials that survived the fire but which were under the new threat of water damage.”
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