Tons of Books Left to Library

Firefighters who rescued an elderly man buried under a mountain of books in his downtown apartment during an earthquake in July helped move the estimated 20,000 volumes to a city library storage room Saturday.

Anthony Cima, 87, who died last month of natural causes, was buried July 13 under his books for about 12 hours after an earthquake that registered 5.3 on the Richter scale. Three of the firefighters who helped in Saturday’s giant moving task were among the crew that found Cima and rescued him.

Cima’s books were given to the Friends of the Public Library, and San Diego firefighters transferred the estimated 10 tons of volumes to a University Heights library storage site where they will be sorted for library usage or sale to the public.

Among the volunteers participating in the book-lift were Fire Capt. Larry Williamson and Firefighters Ralph Haynes and John Handley--all among Cima’s rescuers. A fourth member of the rescue team, Firefighter Charles Mullen, had to cancel plans to help in the move because his wife was having a baby.