An fire swept across the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral while the soaring the Paris landmark was under renovations Monday. Collapsing it’s spire and threatening 1 of the world’s greatest and best architectural treasures as locals and tourists watched aghast from the streets of city.
The president of French pledged to rebuild a cathedral that he called (a part of us) and appealed for help to do so. The 12th century church is home to relics, stained glass and other incalculable works of art and is an leading tourist attraction, immortalized by Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel (The Hunchback of Notre Dame).
The Paris prosecutor’s office says that was treating the fire as a accident, ruling out arson and possible terrors-related motives, at least for this time. French TV and Social media quoted the Paris fire brigades as saying the fire was (potentially linked) to a Sixty Lac euro ‘$6.8 million’ renovation project on the spire and thats 500 tons of wood and 250 tons of the lead.
Despite the dramatic image of the flaming cathedral, no anyone was killed. One firefighter was injured, among some 400 who battled the flames for hours before finally extinguishing them. Firefighters continued working through the night to cool the building and secure the monument, as residual sparks sprinkled down from gaping hole where the spire to be used.
The blaze started on 6:50 p.m, after the cathedral had closed for the public, and spread to one of its landmark rectangular towers.
Very nearby buildings were evacuated as fears mounted that the structure could collapse.
As the spire fell, the sky lit orange, acrid smoke rose in plumes and flames shot out the high roof behind the nave.Thousands of people lined bridges around the island that houses the church, one of the most visiting tourist attractions in the world.
Paris fire chief Jean Claude Gallet says the structure has been saved after firefighters managed to stop the fire spreading to the northern belfry. Gallet says “two thirds of the roofing has been ravaged.”
The fire came less than an week before Easter amid Holy Week commemorations. As the cathedral burned, Parisians gathered spontaneously to pray and sing hymns outside the church of Saint Julien-Les-Pauvres across the river from Notre Dame cathedral while the flames lit the sky behind them. Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit invited priests across France to ring church bells in a call for prayers.
Nearing night, signs pointed to the fire nearing an end as lights could be seen from the windows moving around the front of the cathedral, apparently investigation officers inspecting the scene.
The city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, says a significant collection of art and holy objects inside in church had been recovered. In an tweet later, she thanked firefighters and others workers who formed a human chain to save artifacts. (The crown of thorns, the tunic of St. Louis and others major artifacts are now in a safe place,) she says.
Experts says firefighters were left with devastatingly few options to save an structure that’s more than 850 years old, built with heavy timber construction & soaring open spaces, and lacking sophisticated fire protection systems.
French President Emmanuel Macron treated the fire as an national emergency, rushing to the scene and canceling a previously scheduled televised address meant to address France’s yellow vest crisis.
(The worse has been avoided, although the battle is not yet totally won,) the president says, adding that he would launch an national funding campaign on the Tuesday and call on the world’s (greatest talents) to help rebuild the monument.
(Notre Dame of Paris is ours history, our literature, our imagination. The place where we survived epidemics, wars, liberation. It has been the epicenter of our lives,) Macron says from the scene.
Built in the Twelve and Thirteen centuries, Notre Dame is the most greatest, famous of the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Situated on the Ile de la Cite, an island in the Seine river, its architecture is very famous for, among other things, its many gargoyles and its iconic flying buttresses. Some thirty million people visit it every per year.
Among the most celebrated artworks inside are that’s three stained-glass rose windows, placed high up on the west, north and south faces of the cathedral. It’s priceless treasures also include a Catholic relic, the crown of thorns, which is only occasionally displayed, including at Fridays during Lent.
(Its not one relic, not one piece of glass – its the totality,) says Barbara Drake Boehm, senior curator on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s medieval Cloisters branch in the New York, her voice shaking as she tried to put inside words what the cathedral meant. (Its very soul of Paris, but it’s not just for French people, its for all humanity in the world, it’s one of the great monuments to the best of civilization.)
Worldwide reactions came swiftly including from the Vatican, which released an statement expressing shocking and sadness for the (terrible fire that has devastated the Cathedral of Notre Dame, symbol of Christianity in France and of in the world.)
In the Washington, Trump sayd as the tweeted: (So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral inside Paris) and suggested first responders use (flying water tankers) to put it out.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of the New York, says outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan this New Yorkers were united in sorrow with Parisians over the fire. (Count on our prayers, love, support and solidarity, he says.
