On the evening of September 2, local time, the blood of Latin American culture was severely cut into a wound.
A fire in Rio de Janeiro burned down the 200-year-old National Museum of Brazil, engulfing more than 20 million collections, including a complete skull 12,000 years ago, and the memories of many precious civilizations in the Amazon basin were erased.
What makes the Brazilian angry is that the fire-fighting facilities in Brazil's national Bobo are so bad that firefighters even need to go to the distant lake to take water, which delays the best rescue time of 2 hours.
The fire that destroyed many invaluable treasures has undoubtedly further hit the Brazilian nationals with poor economic conditions, and the backwardness of museum fire protection is directly related to Brazil's tense public budget.
As of 2017, the total debt of the Brazilian government sector has reached 74% of GDP, which is at a very high level. Affected by this, Brazil's public service departments such as education, medical care, and fire protection have repeatedly cut funding.
Since the beginning of 2018, the Brazilian currency Real has repeatedly experienced a sharp depreciation, making Brazil's fragile economic physique worse.
The National Museum of Brazil, which has more than 20 million collections, was hit by a fire on the evening of September 2, and most of the collections were burned. The museum just held its 200th anniversary celebration in June this year.
It can be seen from the aerial photos broadcast by Brazilian television that the entire building has been swallowed up by the sea of fire. The picture shows that the fire almost illuminates the entire night sky, the smoke is filled, and the fire spreads in hundreds of rooms in the museum.
The deputy director of the Christiana Serreo National Museum told TV reporters that the surviving collection should be less than 10% of the total.
In addition to the historical relics of the country, the treasures lost by the National Museum of Brazil include precious cultural relics of international significance from all over the world.
Take Luzia, an invaluable treasure, for example. This is the skull of a woman who lived in Brazil 12,000 years ago. David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, told the New York Times that Luzia's value for scientific research is infinite, and that scientists in it can discover many American pasts.
In addition, as the largest natural history museum in Latin America, the collection of lace insect specimens in the Brazilian Museum is unique. In addition, Egyptian mummies, Etruscan vases, and countless other exhibits from Indian Aboriginal culture to dinosaurs have also been swallowed up by fire.
The head of the Rio fire department, Robardai, said that after the fire, the firefighters found that the two fire hydrants near the museum were under water pressure and could not be fired in time. As a result, firefighters were able to take water from nearby lakes after about two hours, when the fire was out of control. Because the facility was wasting two hours of optimal rescue time, firefighters could only watch the fire out of control, which was the most direct cause of the museum’s heavy losses.
.Due to the lack of long-term funding, the Brazilian National Museum can even see the wall peeling off and the aging exposed wires, and the risk factors are everywhere.
What's more, this former Portuguese palace has a large amount of combustible materials such as wooden floors and paper documents, as well as flammable chemicals such as ethanol and formaldehyde for processing cultural relics. However, the modern fire protection system should not be installed inside, so that the fire hazard could not be solved for a long time.