Notre Dame Cathedral On Fire

[Tom]

The front left tower is already burning from the inside on several floors.

That is not good.

 

[Judge]

I can't help but wonder about the integrity of the stone facade given its exposure to air pollution since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. I know it's an issue the Egyptians are acutely aware of in terms of the city of Cairo's proximity to the Pyramids of Giza, and all the damage done to them over the years.

If Notre Dame is reduced to a stone "shell", whether or not it can hold on its own, despite ribbed vault (flying buttresses) designed to hold it all together.

At least it looks like the bulk of actual firefighting right now is happening at the north end, in an attempt to preserve those two towers.

 

[Sarah S]

Latest's from the mayor as i feared the entire building will be allowed to burn down to the ground. And i agree its better to save the surrounding buildings rather then trying to save whats alredy lost. they DONT have the resources to save it sadly its even water shortage mentioned as fire trucks arent able to get there from blocked traffic .

 

[RosaViolet]

So sad, so sad

Such an iconic historic landmark, a symbol of France, of Paris but also part of all our history and culture, it is the world heritage site, 1200 years old..

I visited Paris a number of times and always went to see it, there is some magic about the Ile de la cite I loved sitting in the garden just near the cathedral, loved the stained windows, it, loved listening to the organ inside.

I hope it will survive and will be restored.

With all our technology, we can't put out a fire in such a high profile building.

The whole cultural heritage is very fragile, this just shows how powerless we are to protect the most precious objects of art and architecture, such an iconic gothic monument.

As usual, there was no plan to deal with a fire in such a tall and awkward building, apparently

 

[RosaViolet]

They told it might not be saved

How is it possible?
so tragic

 

[Sarah S]

Both remaining clock towers are also in danger of going down apparently and MANY of the glass windows etc... Are alredy melted & COUNTESSES of the priceless art etc... Is also in danger of going up in flames.

Sadly back when this buildings were built they dident know all that mush of how to built safe from among other fires etc... so im afraid we will see more of the old buildings around Europe going up in flames in the future. This happens also over here with our culture buildings all over the country sadly. And if memory serves me right the Louvre was under emidiet danger of being flooded a few years back, and all kinds of important historical buildings containing priceless historical artifacts all over Europe looses to both water /Fire etc.... Take Venice thats slowly sinking just to mention another disaster on the verge of happening just for an example

 

[Judge]

They told it might not be saved

How is it possible?
so tragic

The geographic proximity of the cathedral given such limited access, plus an inability to combat the fire using the most modern equipment. Water cannons drawing water from the Seine River couldn't effectively meet the distance to the building, or the height of the flames.

They discounted the possibility of using helicopters to drop large amounts of water because they feared that amount of water suddenly dropped could make the stone facade collapse.

Paris' fire commander said the next 90 minutes will be crucial in terms of whether or not the entire structure can be saved.

 

[RosaViolet]

You would have thought that they knew the height of the building and the pumping power necessary... none of this was unknown. It could have been planned.

They should have some practiced rehearsed plans to put out fires on the roofs of buildings like this. There are dozens of cathedrals in France and all over Europe.

This is Grenfell tower again, where they had a tall building and no workable plans or equipment to fight fires in it, so 79 people died. Fortunately there seem to be no casualties in Notre Dame, hopefully none at all

 

[RosaViolet]

There were commentary that the cathedral survived the Nazis, Hitler ordered to flame Paris and blow out Notre Dame, but the german general did not carry out the order. It survived 1200 years to collapse in fire in 2019...

 

[Sarah S]

Again what you have to keep in mind here is its NOT cheap . + If we look at how that time eras buildings (ie towns etc... )was constructed and the city's were planned with narrow alleys close built buildings etc... (we have it as well incl our capital main city Stockholm that has burnt to the ground once with our castle included) It isent that strange that this things do happen from time time sadly.

 

[Tom]

Worst. Renovation. Ever.

 

[Sarah S]

Worst. Renovation. Ever.

Sadly this is also the risks we take when trying to renovate this old buildings

 

[RosaViolet]

They are now more optimistic, the stone structure is likely to survive. One firefighter injured.
The stained windows and interior wooden structures are lost.

 

[Sarah S]

The most precious art work are apparently sheltered by the brave fire fighters at least.

 

[Sarah S]

The fire seems to be dying down, the two towers are SAFE but over all it seems to be more under some kind of control tho thanks to the GREAT work from the brave 400 France firefighters risking there life to try to save the building. They are apparently dead set on rebuilding the Notre Dame. Whether all and what artifacts and arts are saved and whats the damage is still to be find out .

Update correction the structure of the building is still in danger of collapsing apparently and theres still fire going on although severely less then before

 

[tducey]

This is so sad. One of the most historic places in the world.

 

[oregano]

I was down in Lodi, about 40 miles south of home, when my mom called while I was eating a candy bar at the big Flag City travelers' plaza and said that Notre Dame had burned down, including destruction of all the holy relics inside. (There seems to be conflicting info as to whether the relics were saved at this writing.) I immediately drove back to Sacramento and booted up the PC (I don't own a TV) and went hunting for video. I don't remember much of the drive home, I was in a daze. Definitely one of those days you remember forever.

 

[Isadoorian]

 

[oregano]

I just was over at Kiwi Farms (yes the infamous troll forum) and even they are speechless. Somebody posted a pic of the sanctuary full of debris...with the main altar cross standing above it, seemingly untouched. I'm reminded of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire-when the nuns were allowed back into the Cathedral of St. Mary (the one on California and Grant streets, now called Old St. Mary Church) the roof was gone and part of the back wall had collapsed. One of the nuns noticed something on top of the ash and grabbed at it. It was a steel Catholic crucifix. The paint was gone but the crucifix itself had survived a fire that had melted bricks.

 

[oregano]

Yes, this is REAL.