On Wednesday, a one-alarm fire damaged a large portion of The Book Thing, a free popular book exchange located near Greenmount Avenue and 30th Street. The building held an estimated 200,000 books. Fire crews responded at around 5:15 a.m., and the fire was declared under control after 45 minutes.
The cause of the fire is currently being investigated, and no one was hurt. There was extensive fire and water damage to the building, as well as to many of the books housed inside.
Currently, many of the intact books are in the parking lot outside the warehouse where they can still be picked up this weekend.
Russell Wattenberg, owner of The Book Thing, asked that donations stop, as there is currently no place to store them. Wattenberg spoke to The Baltimore Sun about the large amount of work to do in terms of cleaning up the debris and rebuilding what has been lost.
“It’s just going to be a huge mountain of work ahead,” Wattenberg said to The Sun. “Just replacing the garage door alone will be in the thousands of dollars.”
The Book Thing’s Facebook page posted about Wattenberg’s meetings with media outlets, insurance and construction officials to get The Book Thing back to its usual state.
Wattenberg told the Baltimore City Paper that getting insurance money will be difficult.
“We’re not even sure what the insurance will cover as all the books were free,” he said.
To help rebuild, The Book Thing is reaching out to the community for support in their time of hardship.
On The Book Thing’s Facebook page, there was a link posted to a PayPal account asking for donations to help rebuild.
Freshman Felipe Takaesu commented on the significance of the tragedy and what The Book Thing meant to him.
“It just makes me feel sad, this event kind of reminds me of the burning of the Library of Alexandria,” Takaesu said. “There was so much knowledge lost from this one single event, and it’s really a sad thing. The Book Thing helped me find comfort among books, and now that it’s lost I kind of lost a little bit of that comfort.”
Freshman Lalit Varada echoed this sentiment and also noted how The Book Thing connected him to the Baltimore Community as a whole.
“[The fire] is really terrible,” Varada said. “The Book Thing really showed the Baltimore community because it was something everyone [could] participate in. It was kind of like a community event to go there.
“The people who worked there and the people who went there clearly loved books, and it is awful that the books are lost now.”
Sophomore Salomon Vainstein wrote in an email to The News-Letter that he hopes The Book Thing will be rebuilt.
“I have been to The Book Thing only once when my friends and I decided to check it out. The amount of books there was ridiculous. I think it’s awesome how people donate their books to allow others to take them, especially for families who may not be able to afford books,” Vainstein wrote. “The fire is terrible since it has destroyed a lot of material, but I know the community will come together to build it back up again since it does have a lot of value for people in the community.”
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