AMERICUS — Exactly three months after a fire, the Americus Township library reopened today.
A fire in March did extensive damage to the library and it had been closed since. The fire started when a wire from the aquarium shorted out in the front of the library, said Anita Westcott, library director. The cause was an overloaded outlet.
“They had two surge protectors piggybacked,” Tom Andrews, Emporia fire marshal said in an earlier article. “One was plugged into the other, which was plugged into the wall.”
The fish tank broke, putting out the fire, but the wall, bookshelves and some lights smoldered, filling the building with smoke and soot, Westcott said. The library lost two computers and 290 books in the fire. Westcott said right after the fire staff would go in the building, and they’d come out with soot all over them.
“Soot just fell out of the air,” she said.
The building had to have new carpet, new sheet rock on the wall and ceiling and also had to be painted on the inside. The building also has new light fixtures and each of the library’s 21,000 books had to be cleaned by Stover’s Restoration. Some books had to be cleaned multiple times, Westcott said.
The library is open today from 1 to 5 p.m. It will have a grand opening on July 16 during regular hours. Summer hours have changed and are: 1 to 5 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 to 6 p.m., Thursday; 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday; and is closed on Sundays.