Old relics destroyed in museum blaze

A MASSIVE fire has ripped through a 200-year-old museum in Rio de Janeiro, sending large plumes of smoke into the air as firefighters tried to save historical relics from the flames.

The esteemed National Museum in northern Rio, which houses artefacts from Egypt, GrecoRoman art and some of the first fossils found in Brazil, was closed to the public at the time and there were no reports of injuries.

The museum said the blaze began around 7.30pm local time on Sunday, but it was not immediately clear how the fire began.

President Michel Temer said it was “a sad day for all Brazilians.”

“Two hundred years of work, investigation and knowledge have been lost,” Temer said in a statement.

According to the museum’s website, it has more than 20,000 items related to the history of Brazil and other countries, and that many of its collections came from members of Brazil’s royal family.

Roberto Robadey, a spokesman for the fire department, said 80 firefighters were working to put out the blaze and that some pieces had been spared.

“We were able to remove a lot of things from inside with the help of workers of the museum,” he told Globo News.

Mr Robadey said firefighters got off to a slow start because the two fire hydrants closest to the museum were not functioning.