WRF Building Sustains Major Damage

On Sunday, January 14th the World Research Foundation sustained major damage due to a severe freeze in Sedona, Arizona. Temperatures in Sedona hit record lows, and water pipes were freezing in homes and businesses all over Sedona, as well as  Phoenix, Arizona, to the south. At 9:00 AM, one of the pipes that supplies the water for the fire sprinkler system froze and cracked, sending cascading water down from above the second story ceiling.

Because of the tremendous pressure in the pipes, the upstairs offices began to fill with water very quickly. However, since it was one of the water pipes that is connected to the water for the fire system, an alarm went off at our local fire station. Apparently the fire department was on the scene in about twelve minutes. They quickly determined that there was not a fire, but they saw water running down the stairway from the second story. The fire sprinkler system cutoff valve was inside the building and they needed to enter the building, which was locked at that time. The firemen had to break down a huge metal security gate and then break through the locked doors to our lower and upper floors.

Adele Ross was notified immediately and came to the building as quickly as possible.  Adele found water everywhere, and the temperature at that time was around 18 degrees. WRF staff member Cynthia Richmond called Service Master, a water restoration emergency service company at the suggestion of the fire department, and they immediately began pumping water out of the building. But by mid-afternoon they determined that the carpet and padding had to be removed for structural safety. They stayed until after 7:00 PM, working in the dark, to get all of the heavy carpet and padding removed that first day.

Both LaVerne Boeckmann and Steven Ross, the cofounders of WRF, were out of the area when the problem began and staff members Cynthia Richmond and Adele Ross had to coordinate protecting the rarest materials that were located in the building. Additionally, there was almost 30,000 books and research materials housed in the foundation that also had to be removed. This appeared a daunting task with freezing temperatures and water everywhere. Another difficulty was where to store this many books and bookcases so that they would be safe.  Fortunately, Adele remembered that there was a large empty office space available within our business center, only 50 yards away.  Adele and Cynthia began negotiating with these owners to allow materials from the foundation to be moved to the temporary location.

World Research was also very fortunate that another business owner happened to be at the complex that morning. Dennis Hutchinson, of Afterglow of Sedona, sprang into action opening up his business and making a vacant office available to store the rare books from the 1400s and 1500s. Dennis immediately contacted three young men, and the father of two of the boys, Tim Cox, who arrived within 30 minutes to help move books  to safety that were in immediate danger of damage.

Also, within minutes of Adele’s arrival on the scene, Cynthia Richmond and Sandee Anselmo both arrived to help. They both have heard Steven Ross give so many tours of the facility that they knew the most important materials to save. A few hours later Pete Anselmo arrived to also give his assistance in removing the rare books in jeopardy.

In these early hours the general library could not be moved because of the presence of the firemen, the extremely cold conditions, and the amount of water present in some areas. Although the water was virtually covering the entire floors and was rising under the bookcases, miraculously, none of the books were damaged. However, the carpeting was completely destroyed both upstairs and downstairs. The firemen stated that if they had arrived even ten minutes later, the second story would have collapsed due to the tremendous amount of water along with the weight of the books. With the immediate threat met and after two days of the building being dried out, the rest  of the library then had to be moved. Steven Ross, working with three other movers, worked three days to box and transport the library to the new location.  Another supporter of WRF, Dave Brubaker, also spent several hours each night to move the books after he had worked a full day at his regular job. Overall, we consider ourselves extremely fortunate, lucky and blessed that with all of this damage, we did not lose any of our books.  We were truly protected.

Now we must rebuild, and although we are insured, there are many things that will not be covered under our insurance policy. The rent for the temporary facility is not covered.   This will amount to thousands of dollars over the next few months.  Some of the moving expenses with the professional movers is also not covered under the policy.

We also determined we must increase the amount of insulation in the roof to prevent this from happening again.  The insurance company will not cover this, since they only will repair what is damaged and don’t take preventive action.  We now know we need to upgrade certain cases and containers, the ones that hold our rarest and one-of-a-kind materials, to more fully protect our holdings.  These upgrades are also not covered by the insurance company.

This is the time when we can use YOUR HELP.  During this extremely difficult time we have continued operating to the best of our ability.   Cynthia Richmond has worked extremely hard to insure that people are still receiving the health packets and other health information that they desperately need. Any financial assistance that you can give will be greatly appreciated.  Of course, your donations are completely tax deductible.  It is a tragedy, but we feel blessed to have such loving people around at this time.