Det er især gået ud over titusinder af skolebøger til fattige børn ude på landet i Perus regnskovsregion – vred præsident lover at erstatte tabet, så alle får bøger alligevel.
A fire at an educational materials warehouse in Peru has destroyed around 500.000 school textbooks and 60.000 laptop computers, officials say, according to BBC online Friday.
Firefighters battled for hours to control the blaze in the capital Lima. Much of the lost material was intended for primary school children in poor rural areas.
The fire struck a week after the start of the new school year in Peru, but the books had not yet been distributed because of floods in some areas.
The losses amount to around 60 per cent of the material for primary school children across Peru this year. Most of the computers were low-cost models purchased from the US-based programme, One Laptop per Child.
The worst affected are the children in the rainforest regions of Peru, as the authorities had delayed the distribution of textbooks there because of rains.
The lost materials were valued at more than 100 million US dollar (550 mio. DKR). President Ollanta Humala said he would make sure that replacement books reached school children as soon as possible.
