Below, a special report prepared by "b" at Moon of Alabama.
Here are two short videos at the beginning of the fire 1 2. The second one shows scaffolding around the 90 meter high spire above the middle of the church.
The fire began at about 19:00 local time (17:00 utc , 1:00 PM blogtime).
Church roof fires are notorious for being uncontrollable. The whole roof is likely to come down into the church and burn whatever flammable it finds inside.
Let's hope that the beautiful windows survive.
BREAKING NEWS: Huge fire reported at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.pic.twitter.com/7S0klvLkmn
— Breaking News Feed (@pzf) April 15, 2019
002
Notre Dame #París pic.twitter.com/DNcjZq6Uf8
— Carlos Feria (@carlosferiab) April 15, 2019
My sincere condolences to France over this huge loss.
(Update 1:30 PM)
This video was shot some 15 minutes after the pictures and videos above. Half of the roof is already burning.
— Solveig Godeluck (@Solwii) April 15, 2019
(end update)
(update April 16, 5:00 AM)
The fire during the night. Firefighters prevented the fire from extending into the towers.
Despite the large fire above and the immense load only two smaller parts of the vault came down. The fire extension within the church was limited.
At least one of the beautiful windows (diameter 12.5 meters) survived.
For long years the French state which owns the cathredal and the church which leases it haggled about the costs to renovate the crumbling cathedral. Now donations of hundreds of millions are flowing in. This fire may - end the end - have done something for the church that other powers cold not do.
(end update)
Some joker on Wikipedia changed the "Functional Status" of the church to "On Fire".
Posted by b on April 15, 2019 at 01:28 PM | Permalink
