DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral is on fire

A massive fire engulfed Paris’ famed Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday, as the city’s mayor and firefighters warned people to stay away from the area.

Smoke billowed from the top of the cathedral as flames ripped through its roof and bell towers.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the fire, while local media reported that police in the city were treating it as an accident.

The cathedral, which dates back to the 12th century and is famous for featuring in Victor Hugo’s classic novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” attracts millions of tourists every year.

A major operation was under way, the fire department said, while a city hall spokesman said on Twitter that the area was being cleared.

Notre-Dame was in the midst of renovations, with some sections under scaffolding, while bronze statues were removed last week for works.

In a tweet the mayor of Paris confirmed the fire and called for people to remain away from the scene.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/15/paris-notre-dame-cathedral-on-fire-reuters.html

This is absolutely terrible.

Holy crap! I wonder if they had ever retrofitted fire suppression.....it would appear that did not happen. WOW

Yes it is. From the reports I'm seeing the fire is spreading and parts of the cathedral are collapsing.

Devastating. Makes you just hang your head. With the fire in the center, I don't know how this won't be a near total loss.

How awful!

So much history lost. It’ll never be the same. Art, stained glass, manuscripts... lost forever... just completely tragic.
I’m thankful I got to see it a few years back.
This is a sad loss for all of society.

Looks like what the fire isn't going to destroy, the water they are using, will.

CNBC just reported Firefighters are saying they may not be able to save the building.

Yep, it's sad.

I just hope, now that they've decided they may not stop it, they find it was accidental.

I can see the scaffolding in the pics so construction or renovations were going on.

I have seen many fires happen under those circumstances.
Electric heater left on or sparks from welding getting into the cracks and going unnoticed for hours.

I suspect something accidental.

They're going to say it was accidental whether it was or not.

I saw a couple minutes on a short break at work somebody was talking about it-I thought it was at the college.

I checked and there was supposed to be some renovation going on. If the fire was started during construction, how would you even put an insurance loss to something of this magnitude.

That is a good question as the place is priceless.

The Press is now reporting the structure has been saved, including the Bell Towers.

That is hopeful.

Oh that's right...

It's "Holy Week".

That's awfully coincidental.

So it goes almost 700 years?

I guess it could be a terrorist target.

Well, I don't think you could hide arson in this case.

It's nearly impossible to do that to a building near 1000 years old. Most of the wood in structure is bone dry. You would have to soak it a few days before to keep it from turning water to steam upon contact with the burning embers.


Sad.

I hope your last two reports are accurate. Just thinking about such a historic sight w/so many treasures on fire is more than disturbing.

I hope the Coustou Pieta survived the fire ...

I hope the Hunchback made it.

j/c

There has been a rash of arson fires in Christian churches across France in recent weeks. When I first heard this, my thought was about the many iconic cathedrals throughout France. Then when I heard that the Cathedral of Notre Dame was burning, my first thought was another arson. Others have posted above that arson is not suspected in this fire, but that could also be false info to avoid vigilante responses. I honestly don't know. I will hold my judgement for further info with the hope that it is truthful.

This is an absolute miracle after what I saw in the live coverage.

No kidding!

They don't build them now like they used to.

Are we sure this isnt a before picture?

I think there's smoke and burning embers from the collapse in that pic.

I googled it; they started building it in 1160, or 859 years ago. Apparently they recovered a lot of the art and other historically significant things.

It's a shame. I'm not a religion man, let alone a Catholic, but I felt bad watching videos today of the fire.

Truly a sad day, but before we embellish what could be lost or destroyed, let's remember...this cathedral has survived many tumultuous times including the French Revolution and two World Wars. I hope it survives from this tragedy. Ironically, and sadly, it isn't the French trying to destroy it as they did in the Revolution, nor a foreign invader....it looks to be shoddy contractors trying to save money. The scaffolding went up like kindling and the wooden frame inside ignited soon after.

How could scaffolding catch fire? It's made of steel - or probably aluminum - where I come from.

The scaffolding being used in Paris was wood. It is well reported that it was a huge energy source for the fire.

I'm sure there are reasons they used wood scaffolding. I don't know what those reasons are, though.

Steel scaffolding is all I know of.

Point being...what we do in America isn't how they do it worldwide and vice versa. OR, perhaps this is just ONE of the budget costs the contractors were making (cheaper scaffolding)? Nonetheless, quite possibly welders spark could have started it.

I saw a tweet today that said, the Cathedral survived the French Revolution, but couldn't get past the French Renovation.

Exactly - what WE do isn't necessarily what other countries do, and vice versa.

But, I don't understand how using wood scaffolding would be cheaper for the construction industry in the long term, as opposed to steel scaffolding.

In fact, a company my grandfather took from a 2 man operation, to a 300 man operation, making steel scaffolding, was bought out by a German company, and a few years later bought from the German company by a company from France.

Steel scaffolding lasts years and years and years. I don't think wood scaffolding does.

To put some perspective on it, the printing of the King James version of the Bible (1611 AD) is closer in time to us today, than it is to the start of construction of Notre Dame. Actually, Notre Dame itself is closer in years to the first canonization of the Bible ~382-1163 AD (~781 years) than it is to the current day 1163-2019 (~856 years)

It took nearly two centuries to construct, yet when it was finally completed it took almost another 150 years before the New World was even discovered.

That's not wood scaffolding.