Fire Chief Alfred Eckert dispatched masked firefighters to the highest floor that could be safely reached.
The firefighters spread canvas tarpaulins over as many shelves of books as they could, while hook and ladder trucks sprayed water through the highest openings in the tower, cascading down to the fire below.
Menachem Schmelzer, the librarian at the time, joined Gerson Cohen, the future chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and the fire chief, for the initial foray into the damp, charred stacks.
The fire had been confined primarily to the upper stacks, which housed mostly second and third copies of books, although some important recent acquisitions had also been kept there.
With the assistance of the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, 35,000 books that were saved from the fire and placed in high-density storage are being restored and catalogued.