Local News
Fire spares records, author's books 11/5/05 By HILDY MEDINA
Santa Barbara NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER  A fire on Friday morning came close to destroying records and archives belonging to a former United Nations assistant secretary-general.
The records and 3,000 recently shipped editions of Robert Muller's book "Most of All They Taught Me Happiness," were spared in the garage fire at his Goleta home in the 7400 block of Evergreen Drive. "Not a single (book) was touched," said Mr. Muller, 82. "My whole life has always been very complicated but very miraculous." The author of 14 books, Mr. Muller worked for the U.N. for 38 years and helped coordinate the work of 32 specialized U.N. agencies and world programs. He received the Albert Schweitzer International Prize for Humanities in 1993 and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize numerous times. Mr. Muller's detailed notes of his meetings with world leaders, as well as telegrams and letters dating back 40 years, are in three-ring binders neatly stacked on shelves several feet from where the blaze started. Many of his books are still in the boxes they arrived in three weeks ago. The fire did destroy a wall, part of the roof, several pieces of art and various household items. Barbara Gaughen Muller, Mr. Muller's wife, said that an hour before the fire was discovered, she smelled a burning odor coming from the garage but couldn't find its source. They were preparing breakfast when Ms. Muller noticed smoke coming from the garage and went in to investigate. She said a common wall between the home and the garage was engulfed in flames. "I'm a fireman's daughter. I knew it was an electrical fire, so I smothered it," she said. Firefighters arrived shortly after Ms. Muller discovered the fire and had it out in 25 minutes. Santa Barbara County Fire Department officials say the blaze was sparked by an electrical short in a wire attached to an automatic sprinkler timer. "It was hidden behind some toilet paper," said Ms. Muller. Two smoke alarms in the home had been disconnected a few weeks earlier because they kept going off during a dinner party. If the fire had occurred while the Mullers were sleeping, they might not have survived the blaze, fire officials said. Mr. Muller, a French Resistance fighter who survived a Nazi prison camp, said he doesn't take his luck lightly. "It's incredible," he said. e-mail: hmedina@newspress.com RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS PHOTO Robert Muller plays Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" on his harmonica after a garage fire in his Goleta home Friday was extinguished before it destroyed archives from his years with the United Nations. | 
