It looks like Norte Dame De Paris is buring to the ground.

"burning"

I don't have any idea what "buring" is.
 
The bell towers are mostly wood. Its hard to tell but pictures seem to show that the fire is spreading towards them. This day will go down in history if the fire can’t be controlled.
 
Spire has collapsed. Sad day after almost 900 years.

EDIT: There must have been some work going on as there appear to be scaffolding around the building. I bet it was an accident resulting from this work.
 
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The windows will probably start collapsing shortly, too. The lead in between the sections will melt at 621.4 degrees (F).
 
It is so sad. I think that they will find that workers either discarded a lit cigarette somewhere, or that they were brazing/welding something and not paying attention with a proper fire watch.
I'm also guessing that they didn't have fire extinguishers up on the scaffolding and a person or persons tasked only with a fire watch. Just conjecture, though.

We take our Codes and OSHA for granted in this country - and some even complain about all the regulation - but this may not have happened here, because of these very regulations.
 
I agree we take our codes for granted and we should be thankful for them, but this goes further than just not being up to code. My daughter is currently in grad school for art restoration, and she explained to me that these buildings aren’t merely old, they’re ancient. The very building materials they used, the varnishes, paints, etc were and are highly flammable. You a can’t just remove it without damaging the art. Another point the roof was original to 1163. You have to be very careful when installing sprinkler systems on ancient wooden structures. This is just tragic.
 
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Sooooooo so so sad. All the relics. Beautiful architecture. Stained glass. It’s believed that a piece of Jesus crown of thorns and crucifixion cross were housed there. Comissioned in the 1100’s, was built by hand and completed in 1300’s. The loss is so great.

Scaffolding has actually been there in some form for a couple years. Agree that the restoration products are a likely contributing factor. Same with the OLD wood. And the fact that the church is on an island, makes it difficult for firefighters to get close.

I’m so very surprised there isn’t any attempt at fighting the fire from the air? Maybe it’s just too massive.

And all during the most Holy Week of the Christian calendar. Sooooooooo so so sad!
 
justdoit19 said:
Sooooooo so so sad. All the relics. Beautiful architecture. Stained glass. It’s believed that a piece of Jesus crown of thorns and crucifixion cross were housed there. Comissioned in the 1100’s, was built by hand and completed in 1300’s. The loss is so great.

Scaffolding has actually been there in some form for a couple years. Agree that the restoration products are a likely contributing factor. Same with the OLD wood. And the fact that the church is on an island, makes it difficult for firefighters to get close.

I’m so very surprised there isn’t any attempt at fighting the fire from the air? Maybe it’s just too massive.

And all during the most Holy Week of the Christian calendar. Sooooooooo so so sad!
Click to expand...

This is the medieval town center so everything is densely packed, since city planning was nonexistent. This reminds me of the La Fenice opera house fire in Venice in 1996(I’m old). It was also a restoration accident, and it was a total loss. They had to shift from saving the opera house to saving the city.
 
The problem with the stained glass is that even if the lead didn't melt, hitting the glass with water would break it due to thermal shock.
That glass was going to go, no matter what happened.

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Here's the twitter of some radio guy in Paris who was recently up there taking pictures: https://twitter.com/ericbrunet/status/1117847983691669504

I've been up in the spire of my church, and the timbers are similar to those pictured in Notre Dame: huge, dry, old, dry, very flammable looking. Our church is clearly not on par with this, but when you look around up there it seems like anything (lightning, cigarettes, soldering the roof, etc) should set them alight. Amazing it lasted 850 years.
 
I am just heart broken at the loss of history. The destruction of the Forest tears at me the most. I've read the organ was saved, there is nothing that compares to hearing Johann Sebastian Bach from that Organ. As a young teen, I just sat down on the floor out of the way so I could just listen.
 
This past year there has been a spate of fires and desecrations in Catholic churches across France. So, I do question if this was merely the result of something related to the restoration. There have been just too many fires to not wonder why all this has been happening of late.
 
That thread title is a mess. I just realized that in addition to "Buring", I wrote "Norte" in lieu of "Notre". I must have had a stroke yesterday.:rolleyes:
 
I must say that I am completely amazed this morning, after watching the live feed. There is a tremendous amount of cathedral still there. From what I can see, the fire from the destroyed wood structure did not affect large parts of the stone structure. Basically, the bones are still there. The lierne vaults might possibly still be there, otherwise the fire would have dropped into the interior of the Nave. Miraculously, it looks as though the stained glass survived.
It is truly amazing that the fire didn't do more damage. I almost didn't want to look this morning, but am quite glad that I did.

I think that those firefighters did a fantastic job. Yesterday it was "c'est la vie", but this morning it's "incroyable!"
 
I heard this AM that the organ is OK. As are scared artifacts and relics, and lots of artwork. Some had been moved BC of the ongoing renovation. Kiddos to the firemen who created a human chain to save many, many items.

This photo is amazing: alter, crucifix and lectern. Still standing.

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