Most of the downtown Calgary Public Library reopened for business on Wednesday following a fire on Monday, but library staff expects it will take several weeks to clean up the third floor.

Most of the damage was confined a washroom on the third floor where police say a woman had entered on Monday and deliberately set a fire.

Library spokesperson Grant Kaiser said Wednesday smoke permeated everything and there is a fine layer of soot through the whole floor.

“To both physically clean every single item, every single computer, all of the carpets, walls, tables, chairs, things like that. Plus we’re going to have to take some of the items that were nearest the fire and remove the smoke smell through special treatment of them. It’s going to be an incredibly labour intensive process.”

The cleanup will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The third floor contains collections on business, sciences and social science as well as a computer lab.

It will be closed for three to five weeks.