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Jersey City Library Puts Out
Six Fires in 24 Hours

Law-enforcement officials were investigating a rash of a half-dozen fires set at the Jersey City (N.J.) Public Library main facility on September 19 and 20—five of them in a storage area closed to the public, and one in the reference area. No one was injured, and all the blazes were put out with fire extinguishers. One bookcase containing newspapers and periodicals was destroyed.

“We have got nothing like phone calls telling us that a fire is set or going to be set,” library spokesperson Lynn Wheeler said in the September 21 Jersey Journal. “Suddenly you smell smoke and you race around to try and find where the fire is.”

The incidents have understandably set staff members’ nerves on edge. Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham visited the main library September 20 to offer workers his support. “The staff is very upset, particularly at the notion that this may be an inside job,” Director Fran Ware told the newspaper.

Posted September 24, 2001.

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