Music behind the following scene:

NARRATOR
The Doctor and Professor, roused by the alarm bells and the clattering
fire-wagons rushed back to the University only to find themselves
stuck, with a large mass of onlookers, behind barricades hastily erected by the fire brigade.

Forced to watch as the fire tears through the History department and climbs upwards, and inexorably, with ravenous appetite consumes the very heart of her research, Petra cries out, but only Erasmus hears her anguish through the din of the conflagration.

Our heroes are forced to stand, disbelief warring with anger, misery sparring with incredulity and bear witness as everything they have worked for goes up in smoke.

DR SAGE
Oh, Erasmus, your book!

PROF SAVANT
Never mind my book, your laboratory!

NARRATOR
It will be many days before they learn of the death of their friend.

The History wing is a total loss, as is the glass roofed laboratory above it. The connecting halls that lead to medical are likewise damaged, though the firemen were been successful in saving the majority of the Science wing. Two days after the fire was extinguished, crews moved in to examine the wreckage, sift for any treasures that might have miraculously survived, and catalog the damage for the assurance claim. For our heroes, it is the discovery of a basket, containing a clutch of highly indignant reptiles, and the rational-dress plus-fours of a Graduate that adds the hammer blow of personal tragedy to a loss that is already staggering.