The Nights The Books Needed Saving

On January 12 2014, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France faced an unprecedented water issue: The pipes broke. Three levels were infiltrated by 25m³ of water. The crisis management unit activated the emergency plan, on a Sunday night, to evacuate 38 000 documents, some dating back to early centuries. We'll travel back to that night — and another nightmarish night of such scale — wading back through the emergency response with Céline Allain, BnF’s emergency plan coordinator.  

Our guests:
- Céline Allain, BNF Emergency Plan coordinator since 2013
- Sergent Laurent Da Silva, BNF firefighter
- Maëlle Jeanty, Natural Risks project manager at the CEPRI, the European Centre for the Prevention of Flood Risks
- Jacky Petit, plumber in Paris

This episode is produced by Nancy-Wang Musisá, Piera Rocco, Mihail Ivanov and Lola López Lungo.

The editor in chief is Lorraine Besse.

#upatnight is #ScPodcast based on an original idea by Alice Antheaume.

Music : Théo Boulenger

Illustration : Marine Coutroutsios.

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