Aerial view of the BNP after its fire, bordering the De los Estudios St. (today Ucayali St.)

One of the darkest and most painful events that the National Library of Peru has gone through was the fire in its building that occurred at the dawn on May 10, 1943. After around 11 hours of work, the firefighters managed to put out the flames . In the report of the general commander of the firefighters, Mr. Gustavo Michaels, he mentions the loss of almost all its rooms, as well as the map library of the Geographical Society and the Historical Institute. Thanks to their hard work, they managed to isolate the National Archive from the fire as well as the buildings adjacent to the library within the block.