Fire destroys $100 million in school materials

— A fire at Peru’s main state educational materials warehouse destroyed a half million textbooks, 61,000 laptop computers and 6,000 solar panels that had been destined for schools in poor rural communities.

Education Minister Patricia Salas estimated the loss at $103 million, and it comes just as Peru’s school year begins.

Salas told reporters Friday that the overnight blaze “affects prospects for thousands of Peruvian children to begin classes with the materials and services the state had for them.”

The destroyed computers were purchased from the U.S.-based nonprofit One Laptop per Child Association, which provides rugged, low-cost computers to the world’s most isolated and poorest children.

Peruvian officials said the cause of the blaze was under investigation. It broke out about 9 p.m. Thursday and took 11 hours to control.

Many of the books destroyed were in indigenous languages including Quechua and Ashaninka. Salas said most of the texts were for children ages 3 to 5 living in Peru’s east, which has the highest concentration of native-language speakers.

Peru has about 9 million students, and its public education system is consistently ranked among the lowest in the Americas.

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