Museum recovers some artifacts after fire at storage site

The president of the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) said Wednesday that she is "optimistic" about salvaging many of the 85,000 historical artifacts trapped in its off-site fire-ravaged archives after 200 intact boxes were recovered.

Nancy Yao Maasbach said that she and her team on Wednesday had begun the process of retrieving and removing some of the precious historical items stored in a building in Manhattan Chinatown following a devastating fire that ripped through it last week.

Maasbach told China Daily: "What I saw today and what Yue Ma, the director of collections and I saw, we were smiling at each other every time we took out something. It was like Christmas! We kept saying 'Oh my goodness.'

"I'm really optimistic that what we saw today is in pretty good shape, and I cannot say enough about Yue Ma and Kevin Chu (MOCA collections manager) and our collections, they're amazing! They are the super people of archival preservation, and I think even the Department of Records was surprised by the quality of the work, and that made me even happier!"

The artifacts at MOCA range from photo albums to immigrant tickets, to New York documenting Chinese in America. At least 25 boxes that were recovered Wednesday have been sent to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where they will be "stabilized and then freeze-dried", said Maasbach.

Another 150 boxes were sent to the museum on 215 Centre Street, where 25 volunteers repositioned them and put them in new boxes. Maasbach said she hopes to get the rest of the items out "as soon as possible".

The fire that ripped through the red-brick and brownstone building at 70 Mulberry Street at 8.45pm on Jan 23, destroyed the top floors and the roof.

Eight firefighters and a 59-year-old man were injured in the blaze. The cause of the fire is still not known. The NYPD said that the fire was not "criminal", and an FDNY marshals investigation is ongoing.

There were widespread fears that more than 40 years of Chinese American history was wiped out in the devastation. The MOCA archives were in three rooms located on the second floor. That area sustained damage from water and soot. Around 40,000 items from the archive already had been digitized.

New York City Council member Margaret Chin, who represents the area, said at a news conference Wednesday that a coalition of New York City agencies and officials, including the Department of Buildings, FDNY commissioner, the Department of Citywide Administrative Service (DCAS) commissioner, Chinese American Planning Council, Department of Cultural Affairs, NYPD 5th Precinct and Mayor Bill de Blasio's office have banded together to support efforts to salvage and rebuild.

"It is very important to the Chinese community for us to rebuild," Chin told China Daily. This building has been around for over 100 years."

Chin said that upon hearing of the fire, "I was just devastated. … I was very concerned about MOCA's artifacts. That's our history, so we cannot lose it!"

The location, formerly Public School 23, is owned by the city and was home to several other organizations, including the Chinatown senior center run by the Chinese American Planning Council (CPC), Careers Made Possible (CMP), H.T. Chen & Dancers company, and the United East Athletics Association.

Wayne Ho, CEO of CPC, said that the council was using temporary premises nearby to cater to the elderly.

Hong Shing Lee, executive director of CMP, said his offices located on the top three floors, along with the fourth floor, sustained the most fire damage. The FDNY told him there was no "timeline for when they could get back in".

Yegal Shamash, assistant commissioner for the Department of Buildings, said that the building is "structurally not in jeopardy" but there are concerns for its long-term stability as there is "significant fire damage".

"It's still under investigation. Our engineers are here every day, and they are working with our sister agencies, DCAS and FDNY," Shamash told China Daily.

"The Mayor's Office is very committed to ensuring that this building is brought back, and services that are provided to this community will continue in this building," DCAS Commissioner Lisette Camilo told China Daily.

"This is a really big loss for all of us, and so we are working in lockstep with other organizations ... so that as minimal disruptions to services happens after this terrible tragedy," she said.

Maasbach added: "The rebuilding part is not just important for this community; I would suggest that it is important for this country. Chinese Americans have been here for 200 years.

"I think that's what this [MOCA] collection is about, understanding our own identity so that we can help build the true American identity," she said. "It's important not just for the streets around Chinatown. This is for the US narrative."