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Religious idiots didn't burn the library. That's a myth.

You are probably referring to the destruction of pagan tembles in 391 by Emperor Theodosius. Part of the Library and Museum architecture was contained pagan statues and they probably were destroyed, but many books had been destroyed previous to this, and there is no general agreement on how many were destroyed in 391.

The library was actually burned or otherwise damaged several times over quite a long period of time from around 30BC to well into the 7th century AD. It was damaged in war, by some roman soldiers, accidental fires, city wide fires, earthquakes, as well as religious tirades. It's also highly likely that large numbers of volumes were stolen and taken elsewhere.

Also, there was no single library. The library was decentralized and located in several different buildings in the city. The main library and museum were probably connected, but other library buildings were some seperated by some distance.

Gaius Julius Caesar attacked a fleet in the harbor and it is believed that the first spread to the city and the main library building, resulting in some damage. Some years ago the primary theory was that this destroyed 70K volumes, but now this is generally not accepted. The books were stored deep in the stone structure, and a fire in the harbor would only have been able to destroy a small number of books outside the protection of the capsules most volumes were stored in.

Also, during the sack of the city that followed, further damage was done to the city museum, which held many books.

Aulus Gellius says that 700K volumes were destroyed. You see, no one is even sure how many volumes were stored there, let alone how many were destroyed. Some believe that roman and greek libraries were moved to Alexandria by Claudius I, and Marc Antony (as a gift to Cleopatra).

There was also a civil war in the 3rd century which damaged the museum and perhaps some library buildings, though the museum was still standing in the 4th century, perhaps even later.

So there is no single event which resulted in the library's destruction. It was a centuries long process and all occured during a time when only a tiny fraction of humanity cared for things as important as libraries.

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