Notre Dame Paris ON FIRE!

[redfishbluefish]

How sad.....Notre Dame on fire in Paris....

 

[norfolkgarden]

Terrible! Any idea of the cause yet?

 

[FoD]

Tragic.

 

[Act1n1c_L1fe]

it is very sad. an article I read said luckily all of the bronze statues from the church were removed prior to the fire for renovations.
probably an arson...

 

[redfishbluefish]

Terrible! Any idea of the cause yet?

Watching special news reports right now....they don't know, but mentioned that a seven million dollar renovation is ongoing. My guess would be that the construction crew was using open flame and ended up torching the one tower. They did mention that part of the renovation was repairing/removing tons of lead in the towers. FYI, construction folks were on the scaffolding when the fire began.

 

[sean rand]

Prob a faulty fish tank heater exploded

 

[Sod Buster]

The spire they were working on is gone. A piece of the crown of thorns was in that. Terrible

 

[mattzang]

:(

 

[MnFish1]

Terrible - that is a beautiful church.

 

[norfolkgarden]

A shame. Renovations can be scary.

Weeksville, NC lost 1 of 2 remaining blimp hangers (yup, think Goodyear blimp) a few decades ago. They were built during WW II.
Some welding/torch repair work at the top of one of the huge doors ended up with a smoldering ember fire that took out the entire hanger.

 

[Billldg]

Question is, is the fire out yet or will it consume the whole church?

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'm going to say about two hours in and it's still burning. Hard time getting hoses/water in there. Predicting total burnout.

 

[Sod Buster]

The front where you get a selfie is scorched, but standing.

 

[FishLipz]

While truly sad to lose such an iconic building in a city like Paris, hopefully it strengthens the resolve of those people who worship there. Buildings don’t define us. Our values do. Our ability to come together as people to show compassion and help each other does. With any luck, history will look back and tell a story of loss, but of hope as well.

 

[Entz]

Very sad indeed :( Something I was hoping to see one day.

It sounds like the whole roof of is gone. The towers on the west may be all that survive

 

[MnFish1]

It will be interesting to see if the 'reason' for the renovation (i.e. Lead) was worth the loss. I was in a church in Austria where they were doing renovations with blowtorches blowing - and thought - wow what if something happened. Its tremendously sad

 

[Gonebad395]

Very sad me and my wife have been there a few times

 

[User1]

There will be a lot of speculation as to what caused the fire until after people get in there to inspect it. Initial reports, as already noted above, said it was in an area recently renovated and/or currently being. I was there last year and enjoyed my visit. Being someone that has worked in general safety field to include explosives I never enter a building without my inspection eyes looking around. It is a bad habit. Anyway I always found it interesting with how historic buildings run electricity in buildings that never had it. There is a lot of work to get it into, routed through, and into a usable place be it for lighting, desktop pc, wireless, or security.

 

[norfolkgarden]

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

It appears to be under control but not out yet.
Roof collapsed, central spire collapsed.
2 front towers damaged but still up.
Majority of art work being renovated towards the back of the church has been saved.