The National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973, also known as the 1973 National Archives fire, was a fire that occurred at the Military Personnel Records Center (MPRC) in the St. Louis suburb of Overland, Missouri, from July 12–16, 1973.

The fire destroyed some 16 million to 18 million U.S. military personnel records. The MPRC, the custodian of U.S. military service records, is part of the National Personnel Records Center, an agency of the National Archives and Records Administration of the General Services Administration.

Background

The NPRC was created in 1956 through the mergers of predecessor agencies after World War II, including the Demobilized Personnel Records Center (DPRC) and the Military Personnel Records Center (MILPERCEN) of the Department of Defense, along with the St. Louis Federal Records Center of the General Services Administration. In final form, the NPRC handled the service records of people in federal civil service or American military service, overseen by the National Archives and Records Administration of the General Services Administration. Deliberate arson was ruled out as a cause almost immediately by investigators, as interviews of some personnel who had been in the building just 20 minutes before the first fire alarm reported nothing out of the ordinary. In 1974, investigators of the General Services Administration stated that an electrical short was most likely the cause of the fire but that, owing to the near-total destruction of the sixth floor, where the fire had occurred, a specific investigation into the electrical systems was impossible.

See also

  • 1836 U.S. Patent Office fire
  • 1877 U.S. Patent Office fire

References

Further reading

  • Case Reference Guide (CRG) of the Military Personnel Records Center
  • "The 1973 Fire" – Public information pamphlet published by the National Personnel Records Center
  • "How to obtain Veteran Records" – Instruction sheet from the office of Senator Ted Kennedy which mentions the 1973 fire
  • National Archives 1973 NPRC Fire Information Page
  • An essay regarding the 1973 NPRC Fire