It was due to a burst pipe that the Somme departmental archives, located rue Saint-Fuscien in Amiens, were flooded during the weekend of January 11 to 12. The premises will be closed to the public until further notice in order to put everything back in order.
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On Monday January 13, when individuals asked to consult documents, the archivists were surprised to note the presence of water on five levels in the basement. “This affected several areas : conservation spaces as well as around a hundred meters of heritage documents (archives from the period 1790-1940: registration, land register, municipal administration, military affairs, teaching, and archives from the period after 1940)“, explains the Somme departmental council in a press release.
“The water flowed through a pipe in the first basement and then spread through microcracks in the ceilings on the lower floors.“, he continues.
210 meters of documents were immediately evacuated, including 100 meters of documents directly affected by the water damage. “The priority objective remains to dry out the damaged documents and prevent a general infestation of the evacuated collections. However, great vigilance must be maintained in the coming weeks. In order to devote ourselves to this sensitive mission, the building is closed to the public until further notice“, affirms the Department.
The departmental archives teams are mobilized to best preserve the documents and ensure rapid reopening to the public. Until then, it will be possible to consult the archives in digital version on the administration website.
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