BRAZIL
Cruel Irony
It wasn’t the Rio de Janeiro fire station burning down, but it was almost as ironic.
Brazil’s National Museum was ravaged by a rampaging fire on Sunday, just a month before its fire suppression system was due to be upgraded, CNN reported.
As millions of artifacts went up in smoke, firefighters found that two nearby fire hydrants had inadequate pressure Sunday night and were forced to draw water from a pond. Meanwhile, the upgrade had been approved in June and everything was set for the improvements to begin, Roberto Leher, dean of the Rio de Janeiro Federal University, told reporters Monday.
Culture Minister Sérgio Sá Leitão said much of the damage occurred in a building once called the Imperial Palace. But other items, including a library with 500,000 volumes, were saved.
A complete inventory of the destroyed artifacts is still pending. But more than 20 million items spanning 11,000 years went up in flames, likely including Egyptian mummies and historic artwork.
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