The main structure ofNotre Dame Cathedral has been savedafter amassive fire broke outat the Paris landmark on Monday. But it’s possible the damage could have been minimized had the fire been caught sooner — and it almost was.
New reports indicate that the fire was not immediately discovered after the first alarms went off at the church at 6:20 p.m. local time. It wasn’t until 23 minutes later, when a second alarm sounded, that the blaze was located, according to theNew York Times.By that time, it could not be contained.
Paris public prosecutor Rémy Heitz confirmed the elapsed time and noted that checks were carried out after the first alarm sounded, but no threat was uncovered.
An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing, but initial reports indicate it started in the attic, which has a wooden framework, and spread across the roof and up the 300-foot spire. They were completely consumed and eventually collapsed, leaving three gaping holes in the ceiling of the church. The attic is nicknamed “the forest” for its dense timber structure, says Heitz.
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A spokesperson for Notre Dame, André Finot, elaborated that there is a firefighter on site at the cathedral who has access to the alarm system. When a smoke detector is triggered, that system indicates in which part of the church there is potentially a fire.
However, theTimesnotes that the “forest” did not contain sprinklers or fire-breaking walls, which might have slowed the spread of the fire.
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The 850-year-old Gothic cathedral was also undergoing a $6.8 million renovation, which began last April. The construction process included the installation of scaffolding around the spire. No cause for the blaze has been confirmed, though numerous witnesses and people associated with the construction companies doing work on the building have been interviewed, according to theTimes. Five different companies were involved in the restoration project at the time of the fire.
The blaze has now been completely extinguished Late Monday night,a tweetfrom the AFP confirmed that a Paris fire official declared that the main structure of the historic building had been “saved and preserved.”
“The worst has been avoided, but the battle isn’t fully won yet,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech delivered outside of the church Monday night.
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He promised that the cathedral will be rebuilt. “It is with pride I tell you tonight we will rebuild this cathedral . . . we will rebuild Notre Dame because it is what the French expect of us, it is what our history deserves, it is, in the deepest sense, our destiny,” he said.
source: people.com
