Fire destroys only library for blind in Karaganda

Fire has destroyed the only library for the blind and partially sighted in Karaganda Oblast in central Kazakhstan. It had a unique stock of books and expensive equipment, Tengrinews reports citing Kazakhstan-based KTK TV channel. The fire started at 4:00 a.m. on January 29 and took the firefighters almost four hours to extinguish. Short circuit in the wirework was declared the cause of the incident after a preliminary investigation. The book stock of library for the blind included 200 thousand copies of different written works. The library was serving almost 5 thousand readers annually, but only 1.5 thousand of the visitors were blind or partially sighted. So it may be assumed that part of the book stock was in regular writing. The fire destroyed all the books including a large collection of audiobooks and the literature written in braille. But a high-tech typhlo-information center was the greatest loss to fire - it was the libraries most expensive equipment for the blind. Besides books and equipment, the fire destroyed the newly made renovation worth a king's ransom of $168 thousand.