#museum fire

Museum Fire in Arizona still out of control, already consumed 1,800 acres

"We have close to 600 personnel on the fire right now as we speak, we have zero containment as this point," the incident commander, Rich Nieto, said Tuesday.

Thank you so much! Me too, it’s really scary to watch from a distance but it looks like monsoon season finally came to save what’s left of our pine forest 💚

One of the most prized possessions of Brazil’s National Museum, which was gutted by a huge fire last month, has been found amid the debris: the oldest human fossil in the region, known as Luzia.

The museum director, Alexander Kellner, told The Associated Press on Friday that 80 percent of the fossil’s pieces had been found.

The fossil was discovered during an excavation in 1975 outside the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. It was given the name Luzia in homage to “Lucy,” the famous 3.2 million-year-old remains found in Africa.

The National Museum held Latin America’s largest collection of historical artifacts, with about 20 million pieces. The fire, on Sept. 2, ravaged the stately, 200-year-old museum in Rio de Janeiro. Years of history encapsulated inside were thought to be lost.

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Researchers, museum workers and anthropologists had gathered outside, along with hundreds of residents as the building stood smoldering, as the import of what could be lost sank in.

The 12,000-year-old skeleton known as Luzia was among those treasures believed to be destroyed at the museum, which is linked to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and is the oldest scientific institution in Brazil, with large natural history and anthropology collections.

Some items in the collection are irreplaceable to science, as well as to the country’s national memory. One of the world’s largest meteorites survived the fire, but other pieces — mummies, from Egypt and South America, as well as Egyptian artifacts — may have been destroyed.

Residents had lashed out at what they said was Brazil’s near-abandonment of museums and other basic public services. Many saw the fire as a symbol for a city, and nation, in distress.

“It’s a moment of intense pain,” said Maurilio Oliveira, a paleoartist at the museum. “We can only hope to recover our history from the ashes. Now, we cry and get to work.”

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After a huge blaze engulfed the neglected, 200-year-old National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, it is feared that up to 90 per cent of its 20 million artefacts may have been destroyed. Among the priceless artifacts now lost may be Pompeii frescoes that escaped the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

On Monday, officials promised $2.4 million to shore up the building and rebuild it, but locals are raging about the avoidable loss of a huge chunk of the nation’s history.

Guys

This just happened last night

I couldn't really process it until this morning

That place was beautiful, absolutely beautiful