Fire Rages Through 2 Poor Neighborhoods in Peru
Authorities in Peru’s capital say a fire has raged through two adjoining poor neighborhoods, destroying 555 wooden houses and leaving 1,634 people homeless, but causing no deaths or injuries.
Lima fire department spokesman Lewis Mejia says Saturday’s fire burned for more than four hours before being brought under control. He says investigators are trying to determine what started the blaze and have not yet calculated the value of lost homes and possessions.
Civil defense official Jose Magallanes says flames spread quickly because the two districts on Lima’s northern outskirts are crowded with houses made of wood. He says the people who lost their homes are spending the night in tents provided by the government.
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Lima – A fire at an educational materials warehouse in Peru has destroyed around 500,000 school textbooks and 60,000 laptop computers, officials say.
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% of the material for primary school children across Peru this year, officials said.
Most of the computers were low-cost models purchased from the US-based programme, One Laptop per Child.
The cause of the fire has not yet been established.
“I am absolutely furious over what has happened and I hope we get to the bottom of how this happened,” Education Minister Patricia Salas said.
“The worst affected are the children in the rainforest regions of Peru, as we had delayed the distribution of textbooks there because of the rains,” she added.
The lost materials were valued at more than $100m (£63m).
President Ollanta Humala said he would make sure that replacement books reached school children as soon as possible.