The Museu Nacional in Rio, one of the largest museums in the Americas, was engulfed by flames Sunday evening.
The conflagration began once the museum was closed and Reuters reports that the cause of the blaze is yet to be determined. As of writing, no deaths or injuries have been reported.
More than 20 million items are stored within the museum’s collection, including the 12,000 year old fossilized remains of “Luzia”, the oldest human fossil found in Brazil. Another priceless artifact, a 5.5-ton meteorite discovered in Brazil in 1784, was also housed within the museum.
At this stage, it’s unclear exactly what has been lost in the fire but Marina Amaral, a Brazilian historical colorist, quoted the museum’s director on Twitterexplaining that the 200-year-old historical archive was “totally destroyed” and “there is nothing left”. The Guardian reported that some of the historical archives are believed to have been stored in another building.
Amaral also posted images and video of the blaze to Twitter late Sunday evening.
ht/ all too much
The pictures make it look like a hell of a big fire. Probably started by a cigarette butt.
Hate seeing such destruction.
These things cannot be recreated.
A real tragedy.
Very sad news indeed, but the good news is the Metiorite is probably still a Meteorite.
Blame it on…
Those 250 year old heartwood timbers
burn like nobodies business.Maybe some
of that stuff should have been stored in separate
places…
Who is collecting the insurance money?
The way things go nowadays I wouldn’t be surprised if the fire was started by an arsonist ticked off about Spanish conquistador artifacts in the museum.
Obviously a modern, high-tech fire suppression system wuz not installed here.
They’re not cheap, but it’s better than losing history to eternity!
If I wuz the insurance company….
There was a report that the two — count ’em, two — fire hydrants nearest the building were not working, and fireman had to bring in water on trucks. The reports also said the museum had plans — yeah, plans — to upgrade its fire protection.