NATCHITOCHES — An electrical fire Sunday morning in a data base station on the south wall of the first floor of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum at 800 Front Street in Natchitoches was contained with minor damage, officials said Sunday afternoon.
An alarm shortly after 10 a.m. signaled a fire, and the museum’s sprinkler system was triggered and functioned perfectly, said fire officials. The Natchitoches Fire Department responded immediately, entered the building and completely extinguished a small blaze in the Hall of Fame gallery, the room that visitors see to the left as they enter the front door.
It contains three data base stations with biographic information on Hall of Fame inductees, along with four display cases, a display of artwork done by previous LSHOF artists Clif and Carolyn Thorn, and a recently relocated set of four displays of “Showtime!” LSU’s Spectacular Pistol Pete” photographic exhibit.
A portion of the Hall of Fame’s Wall of Honor, displaying names of the 492 people inducted since 1958, was destroyed, and the entire display suffered smoke damage. Some water damage to the “Showtime” exhibit’s nearest display occurred. Permanent exhibits in the Hall of Fame gallery are all enclosed in glass cases and initial indications, said museum branch manager Jennae Biddiscombe, were that only the nearest case, directly across from the exhibit, might have any significant impact from water and smoke.
State museum staff will be on site today to fully assess the impact and begin to address any necessary rehabilitation of items on display. Among the items in the case adjacent to the fire location are football jerseys of Archie (Saints), Peyton (Pro Bowl) and Eli Manning (Ole Miss), Bert Jones (Colts), Gary Reasons (Northwestern), baseball jerseys of Atley Donald (New York Yankees) and Mel Parnell (Boston Red Sox), along with a cap worn by Coach Eddie Robinson (Grambling), a New York Knicks warmup top from Willis Reed (Grambling) and an LSU football helmet autographed by Billy Cannon, along with baseballs that belonged to Baseball Hall of Fame member Mel Ott of Gretna and were autographed by MLB greats including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby and Tris Speaker. There was no damage apparent Sunday.
The Cane River Creole Heritage Disaspora exhibit in the nearby Atmos Energy Gallery did not appear impacted with only some water on the floor at the entrance.
The museum will be unable to open for an indefinite period of time, however, said Biddiscombe. Advisories on upcoming events at the museum and reopening information will be provided this week, she said.