Posted on 09/02/2018 9:27:25 PM PDT by NRx
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A massive fire raced through Brazil’s 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, probably destroying its collection of more than 20 million items, ranging from archeological finds to historical memorabilia.
The destruction of the building, once a palace for emperors that had fallen into disrepair, was an “incalculable loss for Brazil,” President Michel Temer said in a statement.
“Two hundred years of work, research and knowledge were lost.”
There was no word of the possible cause late on Sunday, nor if there were casualties or the exact extent of damage.
Firefighters in Rio did not reply to requests for comment.
Forgot the link to the report...
Lemme guess, no sprinklers, right?
Maybe carelessly-stored accelerants?
There is a series of seek-and-find video games called “Big City Adventures”. One of the cities they featured was Rio, and the National Museum was one of the venues.
A tragic loss.
That’s heartbreaking. We live in a world where there is so much ignorance of history. When I visit a new place, I always like to visit the local history museum...
What a tragedy. The world has lost so much history in the last few years, including Brazil, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
The West's "ill gotten gains" are more safely preserved than they would have been in their countries of origin.
The burglar saying “I can take better care of your stuff than you can” is not a very good defense for theft.
What a surprise—cultural treasures neglected and unprotected in a slovenly third world country. You could knock me over with at feather! </sarc>
The place was totally consumed which leads me to believe whatever they had wasn't adequate.
Until a report comes out we won't know what happened.
Were there sprinklers? How quickly was it reported? Were the alarms working? Were there alarms? Was it arson and someone spread an accelerant? How quickly did the firefighters get there? How well trained are they? Did they have adequate equipment to fight the fire?
Were there sprinklers? How quickly was it reported? Were the alarms working? Were there alarms? Was it arson and someone spread an accelerant? How quickly did the firefighters get there? How well trained are they? Did they have adequate equipment to fight the fire?
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Yep, one or more of those. Don’t drive yourself crazy mulling over all the possibilities.
This too shall pass.
You can’t fake civilization. Eventually nature will pull you back to your level of existence. Unfortunately, every country now has a population too dumb to maintain anything. It is just a mater of time.
Civilization is not PC.
Wow. Very sad. I hope they may be able to recover some artifacts.
Evidently the building housed a 5.5 ton meteorite.
I’m guessing it survived the fire.
I’m familiar with that game because it’s one of the games on Club Pogo.
Very sad news.
very, very sad.
A “burglar” who properly displays, studies, curates, investigates, restores, and preserves the “booty” he in most cases obtained through purchase or hard work is a noble burglar indeed.
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