Patrons were also doused when the sprinkler went off. “There were people right there getting soaking wet,” Library Director Karen Ganske told reporters at Boise’s KBCI-TV. “It was rather impressive to see a dozen young adults help our staff to move books.”
The fire department recorded an inside temperature of 144 degrees near the sprinkler, located below a glass skylight. Ganske said the most heavily damaged volumes were books of poetry, biography, and history, adding that an insurance adjuster had told her that the loss would probably be covered.
Posted August 4, 2003.