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IIn what may be the worst loss of Barbados’ historical records in a lifetime, a devastating fire destroyed an area of the colonial-era building that houses the National Archives, leaving the minister responsible for preserving the documents in tears and vowing to recover any material that can be salvaged.
Minister for Cultural Affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office, Senator Dr Shantal Munro-Knight, said the government would accelerate an eight-year process to digitise vital records to prevent future loss. But initial investigations show the promise comes too late for records from the country’s oldest form of local government – the parish council system – and Bridgetown City Council, which was abolished in 1969.
Also gone are records of the Colonial General, established in 1844, and the Asylum for the Insane, opened in 1893 (the predecessor of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Lunatic Asylum).
The fire, believed to have been caused by a lightning strike early Tuesday morning, destroyed Block D, a two-storey building that houses the archives department’s storage facility at Black Rock, St Michael.
“It’s an emotional morning,” a visibly moved Senator Monroe Knight told reporters. “We have managed to recover some records and teams are already on site trying to salvage them. But it’s still a big blow for us.”
Chief archivist Ingrid Thompson said “most of the records were destroyed in the fire”.
“These records include church records, city council records and records from mental institutions and general hospitals. The impact is huge because in most cases these documents are irreplaceable,” she said.
Thompson, who has worked at the archives for 38 years, said the department had already begun purchasing a fire-extinguishing system before the disaster to better protect the fragile archives.
“We were in the process of procuring a fire suppression system to protect the archives, but the firefighters told us that the lightning strike had actually ripped off the galvanized sheeting on the building,” she said. “So the fire suppression system didn’t actually work because the fire needed to be contained; the gas needed to be contained within the building.”
Despite the extensive damage, the Chief Archivist said staff would continue to work in other areas of the archive while restoration work was carried out on the burned areas.
Two weeks before the fire, some bound archives were moved to another building as part of an ongoing digitisation exercise – a move that saved them from the fire. Munro-Knight confirmed that plans to upgrade the infrastructure were already underway before the fire.
“We have already begun working with the fire department to begin construction of a new archive building by November that will have enhanced fire suppression and hurricane-proofing,” she said. “While this fire is a setback, it underscores the urgency of our efforts.”
The fire at the archives is a blow to the government’s ambitious “archive economy” program, which was intended to capitalize on Barbados’ historical records and documents.
Senator Munro-Knight was moved to tears as she spoke about the impact the fires had on those plans. Cultural Heritage Month The Barbados Museum launched the campaign just two weeks ago. She lamented the loss of ancestral records suffered in other countries such as Liberia and expressed concern about the vulnerability of Barbados’ cultural heritage to the impacts of climate change.
“We have had visits from Liberians who have lost all their ancestral records. Barbados is lucky to have the National Archives, but imagine if a flood or hurricane destroyed them,” she said on June 2. “Our records and cultural artifacts are vulnerable to damage from heat and water. Imagine these treasures disappearing in an instant.”
On Tuesday, the minister vowed that the government would press ahead with plans to create an “archival economy” by digitising archives and making them accessible.
“We are determined to build an archive economy that not only preserves our records but also makes them accessible to future generations. While we have lost some important documents, we are committed to assessing the losses and continuing with our digitization efforts,” she said.
“The public support has been heartening and I want to reassure everyone that all is not lost. We will rebuild and strengthen our archives to better protect our national heritage.”
Interior Minister Wilfred Abrahams promised a full investigation into the cause of the fire.
Divisional police officer Marlon Small said that according to initial reports, “the fire was caused by a lightning strike that ignited the roof of the building and going by the state of records there, which are very old records, the fire quickly spread throughout the building”.
“This is a tragedy,” Abrahams said, while praising the Barbados Fire Department for its ability to control and extinguish the fire just one minute before midnight.
Even as firefighters continue to battle the blaze, government officials are already looking to the future, meeting the challenge of recovering and replacing as many lost documents as possible.
“We are actively working with the fire department and have hired an engineering firm to assess the damage and implement immediate restoration measures,” Minister Munro-Knight said. “Our team is prepared to protect existing structures and retrieve any materials that may be intact, subject to permission from fire officials.”
Senator Monroe Knight stressed that digitization remains a key priority in protecting Barbados’ historical records from future disasters.
“We have been working hard to digitize records, including the Transatlantic Slave Record, which is vital to our historical documentation,” she said. “This unfortunate incident has strengthened our resolve to move forward with digitization and ensure our historical records are protected.”
The archives also hold baptismal, marriage and death records as well as deeds and wills.
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