BREAKING: The National Museum of #Brazil in #Rio is completely consumed in fire. Founded in 1818, the museum is the holder of over 20 million items, including mummies, meteorites, insects, & fossils. So sad to see history in flames 😦

Video from @g1 live feed#museunacional pic.twitter.com/eCm8G6gKwA

— Justin Fleenor 🔁 (@JustinFleenor) September 3, 2018

The last image I captured of the #MuseuNacional in Rio de Janeiro
It's now burning on fire
This was home to the Portuguese royal family and then became one of the most important natural history museums in South America. Now, fossils, meteorites and other 20 million items are gone pic.twitter.com/bKZsqf3fIg

— Renata Pereira (@renatapereiraTV) September 3, 2018

I spent 10 years of my Life studying fishes at the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro. The room that I defended my masters' thesis is destroyed. Many curators' and students life histories were ruined today. The whole world lost something here #MuseuNacional pic.twitter.com/NwK9TwrIuu

— Vinicius Espíndola (@espindolavc) September 3, 2018

200 of history are in flames tonight. #MuseuNacional, Brazil's & Latin America's biggest museum, is on fire tonight. 20 million artifacts are being destroyed. Luzia, Brazil's oldest fossil, was conserved for 10,000 years by nature, to be destroyed in one night. A nation mourns.

— All The Brazilian Politics (@BrazilianPoli) September 3, 2018

#MuseuNacional is a loss bigger than what can be put on words. It’s our Louvre. It’s our American Museum of Natural History. It had 700+ artifacts from Ancient Egypt, about 750 artifacts from Ancient Rome & Greece, 1,800+ artifacts from ancient peoples in the American Continent.

— All The Brazilian Politics (@BrazilianPoli) September 3, 2018

#MuseuNacional had 90,000+ artifacts from Brazilian archaeology. It had fossils of dinosaurs, preserved for millions of years. It had meteorites. It had Luzia, the most ancient human fossil in the country. And every single floor is on fire. Almost nothing will remain.

— All The Brazilian Politics (@BrazilianPoli) September 3, 2018

I apologize for getting emotional in this coverage of the #MuseuNacional fire, but I'm honestly utterly heartbroken. There's no other way to describe it. I felt my chest ache when I read the news, and even more when I read about all its collections. I'm devastated.

— All The Brazilian Politics (@BrazilianPoli) September 3, 2018

Corrigendum: #MuseuNacional isn't the largest museum in Latin America or Brazil, but it's still one of the largest in the continent, and it's the oldest scientific institution in its country. I apologize for the mistake.

— All The Brazilian Politics (@BrazilianPoli) September 3, 2018

Reporter at the scene of the Museu Nacional fire says firefighters are having trouble containing the blaze because there’s no water in the fire hydrants. https://t.co/O9nkxFmRAG

— Rachel Glickhouse (@Riogringa) September 3, 2018