Was Trapped Beneath Volumes : Collector Offered a Home for His Books

The 86-year-old book collector who was buried under his books during San Diego’s largest earthquake has been offered a place to store his tomes after building inspectors found the mountain of volumes to be a hazard.

Anthony Cima was pinned to his cot for more than 11 hours on July 13, when an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale toppled towering piles of books stacked in his residential hotel room.

He was hospitalized for 54 days and returned to the hotel to live in a second rented room. City building inspectors have ordered him to remove the books, because the volumes are too weighty for the second-floor hotel room.

Red Kaster, manager of Interstate Self Storage on Murphy Canyon Road, has offered to store the books for free, and 20 to 30 volunteers have offered to help Kaster move the books to the storage facility.

Fidelco Communications Corp. in San Ysidro has donated 100 boxes to cart the books, but Kaster was seeking more donations of boxes Sunday.

Kaster and his wife decided to make the offer to Cima after reading of his plight in the newspaper and seeing him on television.

“We have quite a few spaces--we are a new organization and had space available. I just like the gentleman and feel so sorry for him in that hotel,” Kaster said.

The volunteer crew was scheduled to move the books Tuesday, but Cima postponed the date to Friday, Kaster said.

“He said he maybe has a chance to sell. But I think he loves those books so much he hates to see them go,” Kaster said.

“I told him I would take him in my car to come out and sit with the books anytime he wanted. We will even furnish a chair.”