RIP Notre Dame Cathedral

[mugofbeer]

It seems to be a catastrophic fire and loss of one of the world's wonders. I am heartbroken.

[PhiAlpha]

It seems to be a catastrophic fire and loss of one of the world's wonders. I am heartbroken.

Yeah this looks pretty terrible.

[Laramie]

New York Times

Notre-Dame Cathedral: A Short History: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/w...ral-facts.html

Our prayers are with the people of Paris...

[amocore]

It seems the statues and art pieces had been evacuated. If the stone walls, structure and overall towers can be saved, it will be okay.
The spires and roof are gone.

Gut wrenching for me.

[hoya]

That really sucks.

Apparently the fire started a few minutes after workers left. I wonder if this was an accident or on purpose.

[amocore]

Good news ! The structure is safe and the relics had been saved.

[Eric]

Oh that stained glass. My oh my.

Truly a sad day. As sad as they come considering there was no loss of life (as far as I know anyway). It could always have been worse.

[Eric]

However, it is Holy Week, and the entire premise of Christianity is based on the resurrection.

[Rover]

Glad to have been blessed to attend a number of masses there, including one of the more moving Palm Sunday processions and mass.

This burning is a stab in the soul of the French. Regardless of how one feels about religion, this is truly one of the world's icons and the fire is a tragedy. It can be rebuilt, and will be, but it will take years. The repair and maintenance alone in this last phase has taken almost a decade.

[bchris02]

This is definitely tragic. It also seems too fishy that this happened on Easter week at a time when the Catholic Church is under heavy worldwide scrutiny. It needs to be investigated whether or not this really was an accident.

[jn1780]

As bad as it looks, it could have been a lot worse.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/wgntv.c...-released/amp/

[Eric]

This is definitely tragic. It also seems too fishy that this happened on Easter week at a time when the Catholic Church is under heavy worldwide scrutiny. It needs to be investigated whether or not this really was an accident.

I agree, but I suspect our suspcians of the culprit (if there is one) are different. There have been a slew of attacks on churches recently. Most notably, Saint-Sulpice (also in Paris) was set on fire about a month ago (3/17 to be exact). Parishners were in attendance at this church at the time as well. Damage was no where near as extensive.

I would dare to say that arsonist like to set fires from places that are easy to escape unnoticed (like this example). The roof of Notre Dame seems like the last place an arsonist would ever start a fire, or even someone pretending to be.

I'm frankly kind of insulted your mind would go there. Burn down a building of this significance to get some sympathy? Seems like a hell of a stretch.

[poe]

Such a terrible event. I was only in Paris for one day, but I took more photos of Notre Dame than any other landmark. I can't even begin to describe how incredible this building is.

[Eric]

Photo of the alter. Seems appropriate that the cross survived and is still shining.

From what I have read:

*Roof is gone. The stone under the top roof is fine.
*One of the three main stained glass rose windows has fallen out. Most of the other stained glass windows are okay.
*The spire obviously fell, however since it was being restored, the 16 statues that were there were removed just four days ago.
*The main structure is still standing
*Sacred objects are safe

[d-usa]

Having worked some fires, all things considered, this isn’t “that bad” considering how much worse it could have been.

[Eddie1]

Maybe a dumb question but how does stone get destroyed in a fire? Would just the wood, etc be the material that is essentially lost?

[TheTravellers]

Maybe a dumb question but how does stone get destroyed in a fire? Would just the wood, etc be the material that is essentially lost?

Latest word is that pretty much all the wood in the roof/attic and holding up the roof (which is actually 210 tons of lead) is gone. Made in the 12th/13th centuries from trees that were planted in the 8th/9th centuries. I don't think any stone got destroyed, will probably just need to be cleaned thoroughly.

Saw the master organist perform Messiaen works at a concert there when we went many years ago, incredible, hopefully the organ isn't too damaged, parts of it are centuries old too, I believe. Horrible to see, probably take decades to restore.

[d-usa]

The main damage to the stone is a mix of the weight of the collapsing roof, the thermal stress from expanding in the fire, and getting hit by cold water to control the fire.

[bchris02]

I agree, but I suspect our suspcians of the culprit (if there is one) are different. There have been a slew of attacks on churches recently. Most notably, Saint-Sulpice (also in Paris) was set on fire about a month ago (3/17 to be exact). Parishners were in attendance at this church at the time as well. Damage was no where near as extensive.

I would dare to say that arsonist like to set fires from places that are easy to escape unnoticed (like this example). The roof of Notre Dame seems like the last place an arsonist would ever start a fire, or even someone pretending to be.

I'm frankly kind of insulted your mind would go there. Burn down a building of this significance to get some sympathy? Seems like a hell of a stretch.

There are a lot of nutcases out there and Notre Dame is one of the most well-known churches in the world. I'd put it right up there with St Paul's in London or St. Basil's in Moscow. Right now arson looks to be the most likely culprit. I do wonder what the motive was though. Terrorism has been ruled out they say but that's another thing that came to mind.

[hoya]

I don't know how they could rule anything out this early.

[bchris02]

I don't know how they could rule anything out this early.

If it was arson I'd call it terrorism, given the significance of the building. Nobody would set fire to Notre Dame unless they were trying to make a very loud statement. On the other hand, one of the workers may have thrown a cigarette out and it happened to land in just the right spot to end up setting the entire structure ablaze.

[hoya]

If it was arson I'd call it terrorism, given the significance of the building. Nobody would set fire to Notre Dame unless they were trying to make a very loud statement. On the other hand, one of the workers may have thrown a cigarette out and it happened to land in just the right spot to end up setting the entire structure ablaze.

Oh I definitely agree. But unless some worker just happened to come forward already and confessed to leaving his blowtorch running or something, I don't see how they could have determined anything at this point.

My guess is they're "ruling out" terrorism because relations between France's muslim community and everybody else ain't that great. Like they're saying "there's no way it could be terrorism", while inside they're saying "please God, don't let it be terrorism".

[mugofbeer]

Latest word is that pretty much all the wood in the roof/attic and holding up the roof (which is actually 210 tons of lead) is gone. Made in the 12th/13th centuries from trees that were planted in the 8th/9th centuries. I don't think any stone got destroyed, will probably just need to be cleaned thoroughly.

Saw the master organist perform Messiaen works at a concert there when we went many years ago, incredible, hopefully the organ isn't too damaged, parts of it are centuries old too, I believe. Horrible to see, probably take decades to restore.

I am sorry to say l heard it reported the organ and alter were destroyed. I will hope the report is premature.

[Bill Robertson]

I am sorry to say l heard it reported the organ and alter were destroyed. I will hope the report is premature.

News report just now said the organ is OK.

[TheTravellers]

News report just now said the organ is OK.