Risks were known, says Brazil National Museum employee
September 3, 2018
A fire has claimed the vast majority of more than 20 million artifacts at Brazil's biggest museum. Police deployed tear gas to control crowds who were demanding entry to inspect the damage.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Pimentel
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Brazil's National Museum fire destroys millions of artifacts
The Rio de Janeiro museum founded in 1818 by King Joao VI housed 20 million valuable artefacts. Hundreds of rooms have been devastated by fire resulting in an 'incalculable' loss.
Image: Reuters/R. Moraes
Devastation
The fire that ravaged Brazil's National Museum finally went out on Monday, leaving little of the more than 20 million artifacts it had housed. President Temer has promised to pull from several resources to reconstitute the collection.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/M. Lobao
Saving the artefacts
Firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics from the blaze. They got off to a difficult start, as two hydrants closest to the museum were reportedly not working. Fire department spokesman Roberto Robadey said museum workers had helped to save some of the valuable pieces.
Image: Reuters/R. Moraes
Burning for five hours
Twenty fire brigades fought the fire at the National Museum which started on Sunday night. After five hours it was under control but work was ongoing to extinguish it completely. Former environment minister Marina Silva called it a catastrophe "Equivalent to a lobotomy of the Brazilian memory."
Image: Reuters/R. Moraes
'An incalculable loss' to Brazil
President Michel Temer said in a statement: "Two hundred years of work and research and knowledge are lost." Calling it a "tragic day for Brazil," he said: "The loss of the collection of the National Museum is incalculable."
Image: Reuters/R. Moraes
Anger as the fire burns
Deputy director Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte expressed "profound discouragement and immense anger" as he accused Brazilian authorities of a "lack of attention." There had been funding cuts to the museum, which was linked to the city's Federal University. "We fought years ago, in different governments, to obtain resources to adequately preserve everything that was destroyed today," Dias Duarte said.
Image: Reuters/Social Media
The National Museum before the fire
The natural history and anthropology museum housed housed artefacts from Greco-Roman times, from ancient Egypt and "Luzia" the oldest human fossil found in Brazil.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Leoni
Police release tear gas
As demonstrators began to gather around the devasted building, police used batons, tear gas and pepper spray on the crowds. While Culture Minister Sergio Sa Leitao admitted that "this tragedy could have been avoided," he stopped short of apologizing.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/L. Correa
Funding cuts
The museum had suffered from major funding cuts. According to employees, concern about fire dangers was widespread, with workers often unplugging everything in their offices at the end of the day. Workers were also obliged to take fire emergency training, but no one was on hand on Sunday to put it into practice.
Image: Getty Images/B. Mendes
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The flames finally went out at Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, after the loss of most of its more than 20 million artifacts. As Brazilian police used tear gas and pepper spray to keep back angry crowds surrounding the ruins and trying to force their way in, officials from the museum said that the dangers had been well known.
Vice Director Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte told Brazilian TV that the risk of fire was so present in museum employees' minds that they would unplug everything in their offices every day, and that they had recently been given training from firefighters on how to handle an emergency. Duarte said that the damage to the collection was extensive, saying highly heat-resistant meteorites were among the few items to survive.
The blaze, the cause of which remains unknown, began on Sunday evening and destroyed the museum's collections of art and artifacts dating all the way back to ancient Egypt, including the oldest human skull ever found in the western hemisphere. The museum also housed a comprehensive collection on Brazilian history, from Portuguese colonization in the 1500s until independence in the 1800s.
"It's not enough just to cry, it is necessary that the federal government, which has resources, helps the museum to reconstruct its history," museum director Alexandre Keller said in front of the burned-out building.
Brazil's National Museum engulfed by fire
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Temer pledges funds for rebuild
To that end, President Michel Temer promised that several private banks, the public development bank, mining company Valem, and controversy-plagued state-run oil company Petrobras would form a "network of economic support" to rebuild the museum and reconstitute its collection.
"This is a tragic day for Brazil," Temer said. "Two hundred years of work and research and knowledge are lost."
Brazil's Minister of Culture Sergio Sa Leitao acknowledged that "the tragedy could have been avoided," without accepting responsibility or providing further details.
"The problems of the National Museum have been piling up over time," he added.
