Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris on fire

oh no! thanks for the news!

Quelle triste journée pour Paris et le Monde de voir ainsi un joyau de l'humanité s'envoler en fumée.....triste triste triste.

https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/live...hedrale-notre-dame-de-paris_5450550_3224.html

« Nous rebâtirons Notre-Dame » : Emmanuel Macron annonce le lancement d’une souscription nationale après l’incendie

Triste événement effectivement, moi même en tant qu'ex "parisien" cela me peine et les images étaient terribles tantôt !
Mais la structure est préservée ... les deux tiers du toit sont une perte totale !

What caused that fire? I heard there are a lot of candles burning in that Church but I assume they have been burning for 900 years. Was there some accident with an accelerant?

At this point, no one knows the cause. However, there was construction work going on, and one news article reports that the fire started in the attic!

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/15/world/notre-dame-cathedral-fire/index.html

EagerBeaver said:

What caused that fire? I heard there are a lot of candles burning in that Church but I assume they have been burning for 900 years...

Click to expand...

Obviously no one knows. Though it's clear that the fire started in the roof so I think candles can be ruled out.

The structure of the roof of a cathedral like Notre Dame is made of big timbers. Once they get set on fire, they would burn very easily, as could be seen in the videos from today. In addition, the massive scaffolding set up on the roof would also have contained some wood that would burn easily.

I think investigators will have to look at all possible causes. I don't think that someone set the fire deliberately, but that can't be ruled out. There are also many ways that it could have started accidentally. But it seems suspicious to me that the fire started a short time after the church closed and the workday ended. It may take a while to figure out what happened.

In any case, this is a terrible tragedy for Paris, for France and for the world. Notre Dame is more than a cathedral of the Catholic Church. It is a magnificent 900 year old work of art and engineering, one of the Wonders of the World. In these secular times, it is difficult to comprehend the motivations of the men who built Notre Dame during the Age of Faith. But don't forget that it was the same motivations that led Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve and his 50 followers to found the city of Ville Marie (later known as Montréal) in 1642. Even if we don't share those same motivations, we should revere the courage, determination and accomplishments of those men.

Oh, no. What a huge tragic loss. I just saw a tweet from the Paris fire chief -- it looks like the brave and capable firefighters and others were able to save a good amount of the precious arts. I hope the Crown of Thorns is safe and sound. Hopefully, no one was hurt and no lives were loss in this profoundly tragic fire.

I am really not religious at all but i am sad to see this. Its an history monument, to think it survived stuff like WW2 and so much(over 800 years !!) and yet a simple fire took it... Hopefully they can rebuild it as accurately as possible.

Paris has many magnificent Cathedrals. But none more treasured and cherished than the Notre Dame Cathedral made famous all over the world by Victor Hugo. It is a famous Parisian attraction, a symbol. It is a 850-year-old Gothic Masterpiece. I too love history therefore I’m saddened aswell. In the end large parts of the Cathedral got destroyed and the iconic spire fell during the fire.
The good news is that there was no loss of life in all of this . Also by good fortune the structure can be saved and be rebuilt. There have been other fires that have started in reconstruction sites. Lots of old wood coupled with welding perhaps not so hard to happen . Hopefully they can learn from this and take further measures in the future to prevent such accidents happening in other historical buildings .
The comforting news once again is that the famous Cathedral brings Billions in revenue from tourists as a Parisian attraction therefore guaranteeing that it will be promptly and expertly rebuilt by the French govt. History demands it and Money surely guarantees it .

Notre Dame Cathedral can and will be rebuilt. One of the challenges in doing so is that the medieval designers and builders left no architectural drawings or plans for the building.

However thanks to digital technology, modern architects and builders do have a very good idea of what the structure of the building looks like.

https://www.technologyreview.com/th...e-dame-offers-hope-for-its-restoration-after/

https://news.nationalgeographic.com...edral-laser-scan-art-history-medieval-gothic/

It will be difficult and costly but not impossible. As the French say: “Impossible n’est pas français.”

Aucune info sur les causes...on parle toujours d'une cause accidentelle MAIS AUCUN travailleur ne se trouvait sur le site lors du début de l'incendie....ils avaient tous quitté une heure avant.

Les experts entendus parlaient d'une période minimale d'au moins 10-15 ans pour la reconstruction......MACRON veut reconstruire en 5 ans-ce qui correspondrait aux Olympiques de 2024......donc souhait fort louable mais j'ai entendu ce matin que 5 ans serait fort probablement la période pour s'entendre sur un plan de travail--ce qui fait du sens. Une soumission internationale est déjà lancée.....à suivre.

Guys at IGN think that Assassin's Creed (perhaps from Ubisoft Montreal?) could help with the reconstruction of Notre-Dame...
They did a full 3D render of the cathedral's architecture for one of their games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQQ7DHbMI2I

All of this discussion about having the technology to rebuild it so that it’s even better reminded me of the introduction to the 1970s TV show Six Million Dollar Man, in which we are told that “we have the technology” and “we can rebuild him”:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BthNjd_jUl4

EagerBeaver

You really think they want to make the cathedral "better" using the tech? I'd think their goal would be to re-build it as close to how it was built before, to honor the dedication of the original architects and builders.... I can't understand why they'd want to make it "better"....

Yes, if the construction isn’t better, what’s the point in rebuilding? The idea is to build something that will not burn so easily and quickly or corrode for another 900 plus years. The goal of any restorative construction should be to improve on what was there before, in materials and durability, if not cosmetic appearance.

Agree with EB. Anyhow they probably do not have the man expertise to build as it was...

It was really sad to see it burn. I visited the cathedral but I was 22... So long ago. And I was with my girl friend we were more interested in Montmarte and the Moulin rouge

Cheers,

Sorry, I thought you meant "better" as in "better-looking", or "better aesthetics" ....
By "sturdier construction", then I completely agree with you.

Still, I think it was pretty well built initially, to have survived over 800 years and two World Wars....