Los Angeles (AFP)

Surrounded by flames just a few days ago, the famous Getty Museum overlooking Los Angeles is in a high-risk area for fires, but its priceless collections of art are well sheltered: this elegant "fortress" "was designed in every detail to resist fire.

Despite the 300 hectares of scrubland devoured by the "Getty Fire" and the thick smoke that hovered Monday on the hill where the Getty Center is perched, the authorities have at no time considered evacuating the 125,000 pieces and some 1, 4 million documents there. Thousands of people occupying the villas of the upscale neighborhoods nearby were not so lucky.

"Our works are incredibly safe," Getty Center Communications Manager Lisa Lapin told AFP. "The Getty was built to house valuable items and protect them from fire, earthquakes, out of reach," she says.

"We are really built like a beautiful fortress, where everything is safe," says Rabbit.

The Getty Center, which also houses a research center and foundation, with a total staff of 1,000, was built between 1984 and 1997 by architect Richard Meier at an estimated cost of about $ 1 billion.

First dam: it is covered with some 300,000 blocks of travertine, a limestone rock that resists flames.

Its structure is made of concrete and steel bars, unlike most California buildings - including buildings - whose walls are often simple wooden panels fixed on pillars.

The roofs of the Getty are covered with crushed stone to prevent the embers worn by the wind to create a home.

In its gardens, succulents and flame-resistant cactuses have been favored and a tight network of pipes runs through the basement, connected to a cyclopean water reservoir (nearly four million liters) located under the museum's car park. It was enough Monday to operate the sprinklers to moisten the soil and prevent any embers from settling there, at the risk of spreading the fire.

- Closed circuit -

Inside the museum, the ventilation system is passed in a closed circuit - on the same principle as the ventilation of a car to recycle the air inside the cabin - which prevents smoke from entering the rooms. and damage the collections.

This was not necessary on Monday, but if the fire still managed to declare itself in the museum, the galleries can be separated from each other and sealed by a system of double doors, similar to the watertight compartments. 'a submarine.

The Getty Museum is currently hosting a temporary exhibition dedicated to Frenchman Edouard Manet (1832-1883), forerunner of modern painting.

Stricken by the fire at the getty's doors, several owners of paintings lent for the occasion contacted the museum. They were quickly reassured by all these measures of safety, ensures Lisa Rabbit.

This is not the first time the fire has attempted to climb the Getty Hill. Already in 2017, the "Skirball Fire" sounded the alarm and required the implementation of certain measures.

"He was not as close as this one, he did not come to our field, but in either case, we trust that the Getty Center will not risk anything", insists. Mrs. Rabbit.

The evidence, the museum served all week back base for the hundreds of firefighters mobilized on the fire.

The Getty Fire, contained 39% Thursday morning, was caused by a branch of eucalyptus fell on a power line. The short circuit ignited the vegetation, very dry, located below.

© 2019 AFP