Tragedy in Paris

Unfortunately that happens sometimes when you try to mix modern construction techniques with buildings that are 100's of years old.

Truly tragic ! :eek:
 
"The cause of the catastrophic blaze was not known, but French media quoted the Paris fire brigade as saying the fire is "potentially linked" to a 6 million-euro renovation project on the church's spire and its 250 tons of lead. Prosecutors opened an investigation as Paris police said there were no reported deaths."

https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer...torches-top-of-notre-dame-cathedral-in-paris/


250 tons of lead...that's incredible.

I was looking at pictures of the interior, it was absolutely stunning as was the exterior. :(
 
“The entire wooden interior has been lost”

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/nortre-dame-fire-oak-wood-trnd/index.html

The facts in this article are absolutely mind blowing! For example;

“...workers cleared 21 hectares of oak. Each beam of the intricate wooden cross-work was drawn from a different tree: estimated at 13,000 trees in total. To reach the heights the carpenters needed to build the structure, those trees would likely have been 300 or 400 years old, meaning they would have sprouted out of the ground in the eighth or ninth centuries.”

 
“The entire wooden interior has been lost”

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/nortre-dame-fire-oak-wood-trnd/index.html

The facts in this article are absolutely mind blowing! For example;

“...workers cleared 21 hectares of oak. Each beam of the intricate wooden cross-work was drawn from a different tree: estimated at 13,000 trees in total. To reach the heights the carpenters needed to build the structure, those trees would likely have been 300 or 400 years old, meaning they would have sprouted out of the ground in the eighth or ninth centuries.”

Exactly. No doubt they will re build. But what's been lost is irreplaceable. One of the great examples of human achievement from nearly 800 years ago.
 
As a french guy myself, I felt sad to look at that live on TV yesterday evening.
A nice piece of history have gone.

Important is that nobody has been killed.

It already happened in the past . Reims Cathedral roof, Luneville castle, parlement de Bretagne Castle, ....First and second world war, ...
Renovation is always a very risky task for such monuments.

It will cost money, It will take 20 years and hard work, but it will come back alive.
France has the knowledge, the specialists, and even the money.
The main structure remains, the monument is well documented.

Now, people will discuss about who is faulty or not, ....
We just see that the big money should be put on the table before such drama in order to really secure things.
Easy to say.
 
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Thanks for your support man's.
it's a part of us, 850 years of history, and part of the most visited monument in europe that went to ashes last night.
apparently the lower part did not suffer too much.
according to the experts, it will take 40 to 50 years to rebuild the entire roof.
I would not have the chance to see the result finished.
 
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Unfortunately that happens sometimes when you try to mix modern construction techniques with buildings that are 100's of years old.

Truly tragic ! :eek:

As a french guy myself, I felt sad to look at that live on TV yesterday evening.
A nice piece of history have gone.

Important is that nobody has been killed.

It already happened in the past . Reims Cathedral roof, Luneville castle, parlement de Bretagne Castle, ....First and second world war, ...
Renovation is always a very risky task for such monuments.

When I was a small kid our school used the local sports hall for sports. We were there one morning, doing our thing when suddenly smoke came from somewhere in the ceiling. Then the teachers made us leave, pick up our clothes and go outside. And when we got outside we saw the building was on fire. As in really ablaze. We were standing outside on one of the sports fields and I noticed that I had lost my watch. I went back to where it was lying in the grass, like 10 meters from where we were standing and when I got there I already could hardly breathe. The fire was that huge that it was sucking in the oxygen or something. I was not in any kind of danger but I later realized how stupid I've been. Stuff can be replaced, people can't. The building itself must have burned down in less then a quarter of an hour. We saw it literally collapse before our eyes. And this fire also started with a renovation.

Renovations are always tricky. Old buildings never have the same safety codes as modern buildings and future buildings will have different safety codes from today as well. You will always come across things that aren't in the building plans, hacks and work arounds that will make you go WTF were they thinking? That and just plain human error always carry a recipe for disaster.

It will cost money, It will take 20 years and hard work, but it will come back alive.
France has the knowledge, the specialists, and even the money.
The main structure remains, the monument is well documented.

Now, people will discuss about who is faulty or not, ....
We just see that the big money should be put on the table before such drama in order to really secure things.
Easy to say.

Thing is though, I'm not sure if the Notre Dame was still an active church or not, or state owned, but in Europe Christian religion is dying. Most denominations still own a lot of churches, many of them beautiful and old, and thus in much need of maintenance, but with a dwindling base of faithful they don't have the money to fix them all. There's probably not even enough money to maintain them all. In the Netherlands alone the Catholic Church will probably have to close 19 out of every 20 of its churches within the coming decades. There is just no money to renovate and maintain them all. The Catholic church can't afford it, and the Dutch government can't afford to maintain them all. And crowd funding will only go so far. So many renovations will out of necessity be on a shoestring budget.

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So saddened by this tragic loss of the cathedral, but relieved that no lives were lost. I just read that some French Billionaires have pledged $300 million to help rebuild.
 
Sure, ND was not just a RC church but a national and international symbol represented best IMHO by the word "tolérance".

Luckily it can be and shall be reconstructed. All the rest (proselytism, polemics, politics, insurance money and construction errors or not etc etc) doesn't matter that much I guess. Anyway, I'd like to visit the forest they'll have to tear down for that, before it happens..
 
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