The Library was
closed for several days, and in the meantime the walls, where the
entrances were, were pulled down and wooden partitions were run up
across the room, making each department of much smaller area than
before. In addition to this a boarded-in staircase was erected in Edmund
Street, by which persons were able to gain access to the Lending
Library, which is on the ground floor, and to the Reference Library,
which was immediately above. A similar staircase was made in
Ratcliff-place, near the cab stand, for the accommodation of the members
of the Midland Institute, who occupy the Paradise-street side of the
building. The space between the two staircases was boarded up, in order
to keep the public off the works during the alterations, and the
necessary gas supply pipes, &c., were located outside these wooden
partitions. The alterations were well advanced by Christmas, and
everything bade fair for an early and satisfactory completion of the
undertaking. The weather, however, was most severe, and now and then the
moisture in the gas-pipes exposed to the air became frozen. This
occurred on the afternoon of Saturday, January 11, 1879, and an employe
of the gas office lit a gas jet to thaw one of the pipes, A shaving was
blown by the wind across this light, it blazed; the flame caught other
shavings, which had been packed round the pipe to keep the frost out,
and in less than a minute the fire was inside, and in one hour the
Birmingham Reference Library was doomed to destruction.
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