Fire at Restoration Center in Moscow (Russia)
On July 21, 2010, a blaze has killed two firefighters in a Moscow restoration center. Several paintings and icons stored on the third floor of the Igor Grabar Restoration Center were lost in a fire too. Such paintings, icons and other artifacts from the 17th to the 19th centuries were stored at the Grabar pending restoration. The blaze, which lasted for two hours, covered an area of 2,000 m2.
Paintings and icons survived the fire are feared to be irretrievably lost due to water damage. Art works not affected by the fire could suffer damage from the large amount of water used by firemen to control the fire, since water can inevitably lead to the appearance of mould on paintings and icons. An accurate assessment of the damage to the artworks at the centre from the fire could only be determined after a full inventory of the remaining assets. The fire could run into hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of roubles. A single icon is considered 12 mln euros worth.
Twenty fire companies responded to the scene on Thursday and four helicopters dumped water on hot spots in the building 104 times.
The cause of the fire is unknown but there’s the suspect the fire started where restoration specialists were working at the facility or welding crew were working in the interior of the center.
