World

Historical Landmark Catches Fire During Restoration Work

Reporter Karley Ross

Notre-Dame de Paris, more commonly called The Notre Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral in Paris, France. This cathedral is over 850 years old and is considered one of the most famous churches in the world.

On April 15th, 2019 the Notre Dame caught fire and there’s question as to if the ancient structure will crumble or remain standing.

The fire came less than a week before Easter, in the middle of Holy Week, a very significant celebration.

The fire started and was able to spread through the wooden attic in under an hour. The first fire alarm went off at 6:30 pm and everybody was to evacuate even though there was no fire seen. Around 20 minutes later is when the fire was finally noticed.

By Monday night, the art and treasured objects kept in the cathedral had been saved.

The cathedral’s rose stained-glass windows also appear intact, though they’ll likely have to be carefully inspected.

The flames were fought for about 12 hours, firefighters said the fire was completely out just after 9:30 a.m local time.

Nearly 400 firefighters battled the fire. Two policemen and one firefighter had been slightly injured.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but officials say it was most likely started while restoration work was being done. The cathedral was in the middle of a $6.8 million renovation project. Arson and terror-related motive has been ruled out of probable causes.

“It was one of the oldest—until today—surviving roofs of that kind,” says Robert Bork, an architectural historian at the University of Iowa, in an interview with ‘WIRED.’

Firefighters were unable to save the cathedral's 19th century spire, which burned to a blackened shell before toppling over.

Donald Trump posted to Twitter his theory on how to fight the fire faster, “So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!”

The bees that live on top of the Notre Dame survived the fire. Notre Dame has housed three beehives on the first floor on a roof over the sacristy, just beneath the rose window, since 2013. Each hive has about 60,000 bees.

More than 800 million euros ( $920 million ) has already been donated to the reconstruction of the cathedral. The normal annual budget for restoring national monuments is about 300 million euros.