THE HERO OF NOTRE DAME
Priest risked life to save art Restoration firm quizzed over blaze
A BRAVE priest praised for comforting the dying in the Bataclan terror attacks became the hero of Notre Dame, going into the burning cathedral to save priceless artefacts.
Jean-Marc Fournier, 53, saved the Blessed Sacrament and the Crown of Thorns as flames engulfed the building. An emergency services source said: “He’s an absolute hero. He showed no fear.”
Other firefighters formed a human chain to rescue hundreds of other items.
In 2015, Father Fournier ran into the Bataclan music venue, where IS terrorists murdered 89 people, to pray over the dead, and comfort the injured.
Police opened an investigation into the fire yesterday, questioning craftsmen from Le Bras Freres, a firm of “Cathedral Restorers”, to establish how it started.
Paris public prosecutor Remy Heitz said his office was “favouring the theory of an accident”.
But he had assigned 50 people to work on what he believed would be a “long” and “complex” investigation.
It was reported that the high altar, installed in 1989, was the only piece of architecture
inside the building that was damaged. It was hit by the cathedral’s spire when it came crashing down in the flames.
Three “irreplaceable” rose windows which date to the 13th century, at first feared to have exploded, are still intact.
Le Bras Freres had won a £5million contract to repair the wooden and lead spire. Talking about the contract last year, CEO Julien Le Bras, 32, said the goal was “not to put the building at risk”.
He said: ‘The spire is 105 metres tall and there is no question that we will put any pressure on it with the scaffolding.”
A source close to the police investigation, said: “Many of these restorers were interviewed overnight. The fear is that a small fire began in the area where they were working and quickly spread.” Last
night, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to make rebuilding the cathedral a “national project”.
In a televised address to the nation, he said: “We will rebuild Notre Dame even more beautifully, and I want it to be completed in five years. We can do it.
“It is up to us to change this disaster into an opportunity to come together.”
As he spoke, £520million had already been pledged to a fund set up to pay for the rebuilding of the gothic cathedral.
Bernard Arnault, head of the LMVH luxury goods group and the richest man in France, put up £170million.
On Monday, while the cathedral was still ablaze, tycoon Francois-Henri Pinault, who is married to Hollywood actress Salma Hayek, pledged £85million.
Historic England has offered expert help after dealing with similar disasters at Windsor Castle and Hampton Court.
Yesterday, the Queen sent a message of sympathy to the French people, saying she and Prince Philip had been “deeply saddened to see the images of the fire”.
She said: “My thoughts and prayers are with those who worship at the Cathedral and all of France at this difficult time.”
PM Theresa May said: “When it comes to the daunting task of rebuilding... we stand ready to offer our expertise.”
President Donald Trump also sent condolences to Mr Macron in a phone call and offered US assistance.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: “We remember with grateful hearts the tolling of Notre Dame’s bells on September 12, 2001, in solemn recognition of the tragic September 11 attacks on American soil. “Those bells will sound again.” Philippe Marsset, the vicar general of Notre Dame, spoke of witnessing the fire, which injured one firefighter, who is in hospital with “non life-threatening” injuries. Mr Marsset said: “It felt like I was looking at a bombing.”
Surveying the damage, Parisian Eric Zelnick, 69, said: “There’s something empty, missing. It was the face of Paris, now it’s a face missing its teeth.”
NOTRE Dame will rise from the ashes but the destructive inferno in Paris is a warning not to take our own national treasures for granted.
The Houses of Parliament going up in flames would be as big a blow here as the damage to the ancient cathedral is to the French.
There are many magnificent architectural gems we would weep over if they were lost.
York Minster, partly gutted by a lightning strike in 1984, has been restored to its former glory, as has Windsor Castle, but next time a blaze might wreak greater havoc.
Hospitals must be fireproofed, and schools too, after this week’s revelations that five in six new schools were constructed without sprinklers under the penny-pinching Tories.
And if all new homes in Wales must be built with sprinklers, why not in England and Scotland? Grenfell Tower’s human toll was a warning reinforced by Notre Dame.