A wildfire swept through the town of Lytton in British Columbia, destroying 90 percent of the town, including the Chinese History Museum, reports the Daily Hive.
The museum opened just four years ago, but housed a collection of artifacts dating back to the early days of the Chinese in British Columbia.
According to Infotel, the museum said it was built in the style of an 1881 Chinese temple and told the story Chinese inhabitants in the Lytton area from 1858 to 1928.
All its 180 artifacts have been lost in the fire. Only the database remains.
“I’m most concerned that our little museum didn’t get saved, it had a lot of good stuff in there, but that was Fraser Street and Fraser Street was the first to go,” Lake Country Mayor James Baker said.
The Daily Hive says just two months ago the museum won the 2021 Drs. Wallace B. & Madeline H. Chung Prize for Chinese Canadian Community Archiving.
Dozens of people have left messages of condolences on the museum’s Facebook page.
The fire in Lytton has grown to 83 square kilometres in size. At least two people died in the fire.
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Very sorry about this. How I wish that it could have been prevented,