Brazil. A fire ravages the National Museum of Rio: "A tragedy for culture"

The National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was the scene of a spectacular fire on Sunday evening. The fire, of unknown origin, did not cause any casualties but caused the loss of thousands of works of inestimable value.

A huge fire broke out on Sunday, September 2, at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, one of the oldest museums in Brazil, according to television images that showed the building ravaged by the flames. The first news reported by the local media did not mention victims or the causes of the fire.

"So far, there are no reports of casualties. He (the fire) spread very quickly. There is a lot of flammable materials " in the museum, told AFP a spokesman for the firefighters of Rio de Janeiro.

Incêndio atinge o Museu Nacional na Quinta da Boa Vista, em São Cristóvão. https://t.co/kG4qq10n6x pic.twitter.com/ih2iTxejBn

According to the O Globo channel, the incident began Sunday around 19:30 local time (22:30 GMT) while the museum had already been closed to the public.

Despite the rapid dispatch of firefighters, the fire gained hundreds of rooms in the museum, destroying everything in its path. Firefighters took long hours to contain the fire.

The aerial images of the television showed the majestic 13,000-square-meter building in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro, ravaged by huge flames for hours.

Violente fuego, destroyed by the Museo Nacional de Brasil, in Rio de Janeiro, edificio de más de 200 años y uno de los más grande de Latinoamérica. pic.twitter.com/QZhQScNJVX

"Today is a tragic day for Brazil. Two hundred years of work, research and knowledge have been lost, " said President Michel Temer in a press release.

"200 years of history disappearing"

Created by King John VI and opened in 1818, the National Museum is one of the oldest and most important museums in Brazil and has more than 20 million valuable pieces.

The website of the National Museum details the works present in the building: an Egyptian collection, another of Greco-Roman art and artifacts, collections of paleontology including a skeleton of a dinosaur found in the region of Minas Gerais as well as as the oldest human fossil discovered in Brazil, known as "Luzia" .

Part of the collections are destroyed. | EPA-EFE / MARCELO SAYAO

The deputy director of the museum, Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, confided that he felt "a deep discouragement" and "an immense anger" . "All the historical archives, which were kept in an intermediate area of ​​the building, were completely destroyed. It is 200 years of history that have disappeared, " he lamented.

Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte accused the Brazilian authorities of "lack of attention" and stressed that there has never been "effective and urgent support" for an adaptation of the palace, the former official residence of the royal and imperial family . Linked to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the institution suffered budget cuts.

Indignation

The fire "is a tragedy for culture," the director of another Brazilian museum, Paulo Knauss, told the TV Globo.

While the flames consumed this jewel of Brazilian culture, sadness mingled with the indignation of researchers, professors and students. Some of them called for a demonstration protest Monday in front of the destroyed building.

Senator Lindenbergh Farias of the Workers' Party (PT, on the left) denounced the lack of means to support the museum and made the link with government-mandated spending cuts.