VERMONT

Scientists laud firefighters' care of UVM plant collection

Nicole Higgins DeSmet
Burlington Free Press

Firefighters took pains to wrap the University of Vermont's prized plant collection in plastic just after flames were contained in a historic building on Thursday. Their actions garnered praise from preservationists and scientists across the country.

Firefighters battle a blaze at the University of Vermont's Torrey Hall in Burlington on Thursday, August 3, 2017.

Fire department officials confirmed they have received over 65 individual messages from all over the country in praise of their work at Torrey Hall where a fire, thought to be accidental, was started by a construction worker's rooftop soldering.

The work was part of a renovation project planned to preserve and protect both the building constructed in 1863 and its contents, according to the university.

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"Community of natural history curators all over the world are so proud of and grateful to the fire department for saving the irreplaceable Pringle Herbarium," Shannon Dominick a biologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture wrote in a Facebook message on Friday.

The Pringle Herbarium stores over 300,000 specimens from Vermont and other locations dating to the 19th and 20th centuries. There are 173 cabinets in the collection of various sizes. Most of the specimens remain intact, according to UVM officials.

“We have to give credit to the firefighters because they made some excellent decisions,” UVM biologist Dave Barrington said on Friday.

"We carry tarps. We cover where and when we can. This was a huge area," Deputy Fire Chief Peter Brown said on Monday explaining the fact that what they carried wouldn't have been sufficient to cover the third largest herbarium in New England..

The construction company provided the firefighters with tarps to cover the herbarium cabinets on the top floor of Torrey Hall. 

"We all knew there was a value to it. You could tell by the cabinets," Brown said describing the chain of command at the site of the fire. "Some of us knew more about what was in there than others."

The collection is kept in protective storage units purchased in 2014 with the assistance of a National Science Foundation grant.

    The plant and fungi samples in the herbarium were estimated to be worth approximately $6 million by Barbara Thiers, herbarium director at the New York Botanical Garden.

    Cabinets inside the Pringle Herbarium at UVM’s Torrey Hall taken after a fire tore through the building on Thursday, August 3, 2017.

    Professor of Historic Preservation,Thomas D. Visser, who directs the graduate Historic Preservation Program in the history department at UVM called the fire a setback, but he indicated that even though there were no sprinklers in the building at the time of the fire, renovations were underway that helped retard fires and prevent some damage. 

    "Our old buildings are a treasure for university as well as the broader community. As steps are taken for repairs, it makes sense to reduce risk," Visser said explaining that he had consulted on the work at Torrey Hall but only the university's building engineers could speak to details on the renovations.

    Deputy Chief Brown said that the department does not have individual plans for every building on campus, but they do have plans for buildings with labs and dangerous chemicals.

    "UVM building managers have plans, but not in conjunction with us," Brown said, but he indicated that it's possible that could change in the future. 

    Old mushroom specimens at the University of Vermont Pringle Herbarium taken out for display, July 11, 2015 for a fungi workshop.

    Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet at ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet