SARAH BUITENDACH: Things we lost in the fire
A cursory glance at UCT's website made me think, with apologies to Joni Mitchell, that we don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
20 April 2021 - 06:35
It is too early to comprehend the full impact of the fire that raged across Table Mountain on Sunday, straying onto the University of Cape Town’s upper and middle campuses and damaging and destroying buildings in its path.
Hardest hit, it seems, was the Special Collections Library (or Jagger Library). Photos showed the building, which dates back to 1930 when it opened as the university’s main library, as an apocalyptic tip of still smouldering fire and debris. It may be that some parts of the collection were saved by fire doors and sprinklers, but it doesn’t look good...
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