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Saturday's museum fire cancels Simcoe County Heritage Fair

The museum remains closed today for remediation and standard air quality tests following a small fire that occurred this past weekend
2018-04-21FireSimcoeCountyMuseum1KL
Springwater fire crews try to get at a stubborn fire in the wall and roof of the Simcoe County Museum on Saturday, April 21, 2018. Kevin Lamb for BarrieToday.

NEWS RELEASE
COUNTY OF SIMCOE
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MIDHURST - The Simcoe County Museum will remain closed Tuesday, April 24, 2018 for remediation and standard air quality tests following a small fire that occurred at the facility on Saturday afternoon. Regretfully, the Simcoe County Heritage Fair, which was scheduled to occur April 24-25, has been cancelled. The County thanks residents for their understanding and please know that the health and safety of our visitors is paramount.

Details about the small fire that occurred on April 21, 2018:

The fire was contained to a small section of the Living and Working gallery (Military section) located in the north east corner of the main building. While this section of the building requires repairs, damage to artifacts was minimal with water damage to only one WWI Billboard, an original linen backed paper billboard that depicts a soldier standing at a grave, with the words “If ye break faith – we shall not sleep”. This billboard features prominently in the Military section of the gallery. A handful of other artifacts within the gallery also received minor smoke damage.

County of Simcoe is composed of sixteen member municipalities and provides crucial public services to County residents in addition to providing paramedic and social services to the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia. Visit our website at simcoe.ca.

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