Walnut Street West Library, one of the oldest Free Library of Philadelphia branches, has reopened its doors to the public after last week’s fire in an electrical transformer located under the sidewalk on 40th Street, in front of the library.

“Walnut West [head] librarian Bruce [Siebers] arrived at work early last Thursday morning, January 20, before anyone else. When he turned on the lights, they flickered, then suddenly there was a WHOOSH and black smoke billowed into the rooms,” writes Alice Wells, a member of volunteer group The Friends of Walnut West Library. “He ran outside – smoke was visible from the street too. In moments the block was filled with fire trucks, police cars, an ambulance and PECO and PGW trucks.”

Although no flames reached inside the library, PGW deemed the air in the building unsafe.

“PECO…luckily had the electricity back on by 6 p.m., which meant the heat could run, otherwise water pipes might have frozen in that night’s frigid temperatures,” Alice wrote us in an e-mail.

The library staff, with the help of volunteers, aired out the building that morning and were able to keep smoke damage to a minimum. But, a strong odor still remained in some parts of the building, especially in those areas that have no windows and are near the transformer. The Free Library had the building professionally cleaned so it was ready to open less than a week later – on Wednesday, January 26.

During the pandemic the staff at Walnut St. West Library “bent over backwards” to maintain services, even with limited public access.

“Walnut St. West has become the busiest branch in the Free Library system, with patrons coming from all over the city to pick up reserved books or just to browse when other branches were still closed,” Alice writes.

When the branch opened again for business on Wednesday, a long line of patrons were waiting outside. “The staff did an unbelievable job [on Wednesday]. They checked out over 1700 materials!” Alice writes. Behind the scenes, the staff had to process a backlog of over 1300 reserved books that had been delivered to the branch since the fire, so they would be available for patrons to take out.

If you would like to support the library, which has been serving patrons since 1895, please note that it doesn’t appear to need donations for the fire, but Siebers has big plans for improving the 2nd floor book area by putting the shelves on wheels so they can be rearranged for different displays or events.

The Friends of Walnut West raise some funds, mostly through selling donated used books to support library programs, supplies and improvements and repairs to the building that the City can’t afford. The Friends are a 501C3 organization, so donations are tax deductible. They welcome new members to the Friends of Walnut St. West, and also encourage people to support their neighborhood branches. For more information, please visit the group’s Facebook page (their website is currently offline).