On 15 April 2019, shortly before
18:50 CEST (16:50 UTC), a fire broke out in the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral in
Paris
The cathedral's wood-and-lead spire and roof collapsed, and considerable damage was caused to the interior, upper walls, and windows, as well as to numerous works of art. The stone vaulted ceiling beneath the roof prevented most of the fire from spreading to the interior of the cathedral, saving the building from worse damage. Cathedral staff are working to assess damage to its interior features and religious artifacts.
President Emmanuel Macron promised the country would restore the cathedral and launched a fundraising campaign which brought in pledges of €730 million from several benefactors within 24 hours of the fire. It has been estimated the restoration work could last up to 20 years.
Background
Construction of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris ("Our Lady of Paris") began in the 12th century, using stonework for the walls and vault and wood for the main roofs and its spire. A new flèche (spire) designed by Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was added in the 19th century, in oak covered with lead; the original, damaged by wind, had been removed between 1786 and 1791. The cathedral was listed as part of the "Paris, Banks of theSeine " UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 1991.
In recent years, the cathedral had started to show significant wear, with some of the stonework crumbling, primarily due to environmental pollution. Philippe Villeneuve, architect-in-chief of Historic Monuments inFrance
In 2016, the Archdiocese of Paris launched an appeal to raise €100 million over the following five to ten years to meet the costs of maintenance and restoration. At the time of the fire, it was undergoing renovations on the spire, estimated to cost €6 million. Steel scaffolding had been erected around the roofs. Renovation works often cause fires, and such fires can smoulder for hours before being noticed. It is suspected that the Notre Dame fire may have been caused by the renovation work, which required soldering and blowtorch use.
Originally theParis
According to those at the scene, the doors of the cathedral were abruptly closed on them as they tried to enter, and white smoke started spreading from the roof. The smoke turned to black, indicating that timber was burning. It later turned yellow.
Emergency
response
Police quickly evacuated the Île de la Cité, and the city closed access to the island. People gathered on the banks of theSeine and at nearby buildings to
watch. Most of the fire was extinguished by 23:30 CEST, and the fire was
considered completely extinguished by 3:30 CEST the next day, after about
twelve hours of fire-fighting. Fire crews remained to identify and extinguish
residual fires.
A spokesman for the Paris Fire Brigade announced that more than four hundred firefighters were engaged. The fire was primarily fought from the inside, in line with common French firefighting practice. Attacking the fire from the outside risked damaging the interior by deflecting flames and hot gasses (at temperatures up to 800 Celsius) inwards. Water cannons from ground-based vehicles were carefully used to douse the fire while avoiding further damage to the building. The possibility of aerial firefighting was discounted, as the weight of the water and the intensity of the drop at low altitude could have weakened the cathedral's structure. The limestone of which the cathedral is built can also crack in the heat, especially if it is abruptly chilled by being doused with water. Molten lead from the roof also posed a hazard to firefighters.
Paris
Structural
Damage
Within an hour of flames being seen, the lead-clad timber roof of the cathedral, including its timber central spire, was engulfed, causing it to collapse onto the masonry of the cathedral's ceiling vault. The oak section of the church's roof was destroyed. Much of the timber structure that burned was the cathedral's "forest": wooden roof trusses, made from approximately 21 hectares (0.21 km2; 52 acres) of oak trees cut down for the construction of the cathedral, each individual tree contributing a single beam. The older timbers date from the early 13th century. Approximately 210 tonnes (230 short tons) of lead sheet sat atop the timber framing to complete the cathedral's roof. The lead used to sheathe the roof melted widely.
There was fear that the collapsing timber roof would damage the stone vaulting that forms the ceiling of the cathedral and supports the walls from the inside (the flying buttresses support it from the outside). If the masonry vault had collapsed, the damage would have been significantly worse; there were fears that the entire structure would be destroyed. Although the vaulting was intended by the medieval designers to protect the nave from roof fires, this is not always effective; similar cathedrals have been completely destroyed by fires in the past. Lead melting down onto the vaults could have unbalanced them, causing collapse. However, the vaults mostly remained intact, and continued to support the flaming roof timbers after they collapsed, preventing most of the burning roof from falling into the cathedral's nave. A few sections fell, leaving holes in the vault, through which the fire could be seen from the nave below.
Around 23:15 CEST, an official with the Interior Ministry reported that the fire had weakened and that "both towers of the cathedral are safe." Following the fire, the primary structure, including both of the towers, and one-third of the roof remained standing. Early pictures taken inside the cathedral after the fire showed that most of the stone vaulted ceiling remained in place, but sections had collapsed, allowing flaming debris to fall through.
The north rose window was reported to remain intact. Later images showed that all three of the church's 13th-century rose windows survived, although there was damage to some of the 19th-century windows.
The cathedral's wood-and-lead spire and roof collapsed, and considerable damage was caused to the interior, upper walls, and windows, as well as to numerous works of art. The stone vaulted ceiling beneath the roof prevented most of the fire from spreading to the interior of the cathedral, saving the building from worse damage. Cathedral staff are working to assess damage to its interior features and religious artifacts.
President Emmanuel Macron promised the country would restore the cathedral and launched a fundraising campaign which brought in pledges of €730 million from several benefactors within 24 hours of the fire. It has been estimated the restoration work could last up to 20 years.
Construction of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris ("Our Lady of Paris") began in the 12th century, using stonework for the walls and vault and wood for the main roofs and its spire. A new flèche (spire) designed by Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was added in the 19th century, in oak covered with lead; the original, damaged by wind, had been removed between 1786 and 1791. The cathedral was listed as part of the "Paris, Banks of the
In recent years, the cathedral had started to show significant wear, with some of the stonework crumbling, primarily due to environmental pollution. Philippe Villeneuve, architect-in-chief of Historic Monuments in
In 2016, the Archdiocese of Paris launched an appeal to raise €100 million over the following five to ten years to meet the costs of maintenance and restoration. At the time of the fire, it was undergoing renovations on the spire, estimated to cost €6 million. Steel scaffolding had been erected around the roofs. Renovation works often cause fires, and such fires can smoulder for hours before being noticed. It is suspected that the Notre Dame fire may have been caused by the renovation work, which required soldering and blowtorch use.
The Fire
Originally the
According to those at the scene, the doors of the cathedral were abruptly closed on them as they tried to enter, and white smoke started spreading from the roof. The smoke turned to black, indicating that timber was burning. It later turned yellow.
Emergency
response
Police quickly evacuated the Île de la Cité, and the city closed access to the island. People gathered on the banks of the
A spokesman for the Paris Fire Brigade announced that more than four hundred firefighters were engaged. The fire was primarily fought from the inside, in line with common French firefighting practice. Attacking the fire from the outside risked damaging the interior by deflecting flames and hot gasses (at temperatures up to 800 Celsius) inwards. Water cannons from ground-based vehicles were carefully used to douse the fire while avoiding further damage to the building. The possibility of aerial firefighting was discounted, as the weight of the water and the intensity of the drop at low altitude could have weakened the cathedral's structure. The limestone of which the cathedral is built can also crack in the heat, especially if it is abruptly chilled by being doused with water. Molten lead from the roof also posed a hazard to firefighters.
Structural
Damage
Within an hour of flames being seen, the lead-clad timber roof of the cathedral, including its timber central spire, was engulfed, causing it to collapse onto the masonry of the cathedral's ceiling vault. The oak section of the church's roof was destroyed. Much of the timber structure that burned was the cathedral's "forest": wooden roof trusses, made from approximately 21 hectares (0.21 km2; 52 acres) of oak trees cut down for the construction of the cathedral, each individual tree contributing a single beam. The older timbers date from the early 13th century. Approximately 210 tonnes (230 short tons) of lead sheet sat atop the timber framing to complete the cathedral's roof. The lead used to sheathe the roof melted widely.
There was fear that the collapsing timber roof would damage the stone vaulting that forms the ceiling of the cathedral and supports the walls from the inside (the flying buttresses support it from the outside). If the masonry vault had collapsed, the damage would have been significantly worse; there were fears that the entire structure would be destroyed. Although the vaulting was intended by the medieval designers to protect the nave from roof fires, this is not always effective; similar cathedrals have been completely destroyed by fires in the past. Lead melting down onto the vaults could have unbalanced them, causing collapse. However, the vaults mostly remained intact, and continued to support the flaming roof timbers after they collapsed, preventing most of the burning roof from falling into the cathedral's nave. A few sections fell, leaving holes in the vault, through which the fire could be seen from the nave below.
Around 23:15 CEST, an official with the Interior Ministry reported that the fire had weakened and that "both towers of the cathedral are safe." Following the fire, the primary structure, including both of the towers, and one-third of the roof remained standing. Early pictures taken inside the cathedral after the fire showed that most of the stone vaulted ceiling remained in place, but sections had collapsed, allowing flaming debris to fall through.
The north rose window was reported to remain intact. Later images showed that all three of the church's 13th-century rose windows survived, although there was damage to some of the 19th-century windows.
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