Emergency - Refrigerator with film died!

[obsessivephotographer]

I have an apartment sized refrigerator with all of my film in it. Life has been really busy lately and I prefer slides over the negatives in the fridge, so I haven't opened the fridge in a while. I opened it today, and saw that the freezer in it had melted, sending water everywhere, and all over my film!!

All the film is in it's original casings and boxes, and then those boxes are inside sealed ziploc bags. I can see tons of moisture inside the bags. The cardboard film boxes are completely soggy.

What do I do? Is the film beyond all hope of retrieval? Should I keep the ziploc bags out in normal air temperatures, put into a different fridge, or freeze them?

 

[LiveWave]

Just let everything dry out. Normally when you put film in a fridge, condensation gets on the film, you should not even use film without letting it acclimate to room temperature for a few hours.

 

[obsessivephotographer]

Usually I let it acclimate for a few hours before I use it. I think it will be mostly salvageable considering it's all in the original containers, then ziplocked. I'm glad to hear there's normally condensation moving things in and out of the fridge, hopefully everything will be alright.

The worst part of all this is that I was going to use this film on my trips to Arizona and Northern Ireland this month. However, now that it's had this issue I don't feel comfortable relying on it for a once in a lifetime trip to Ireland. On the plus side, although my wallet is hurting, I purchased slide film at B&H, which I like tons better than the negative film that was in my fridge. It didn't hurt that their Provia was cheaper than their Sensia. Due to my preference for slides I think I'll be a lot happier with the pictures I take in Ireland than if I had used the negatives.

 

[manfromh]

Since all the film was in their original canisters, I dont think there is any damage to the film. If in doubt, shoot a test roll.