Notre-dame stands, gutted but valiant

CHARRED HISTORY Fire caused by accident, say officials as Macron vows cathedral will rise again

Paris:parisians gave thanks to see the bell towers and great stainedglass rose window of Notre-dame still standing on Tuesday, after firefighters laboured through the night to douse the flames that gutted one of the most potent national symbols of France.

Authorities said they suspected the fire was caused by accident. President Emmanuel Macron declared that the cathedral would be rebuilt. Industrialists pledged hundreds of millions of euros. Ordinary people sang, wept and prayed below the cathedral that has towered above the capital for more than 800 years.

More than 400 firemen were needed to tame the inferno that consumed the roof and collapsed the spire of the Gothic masterpiece. They worked through the night, finally quelling the blaze some 14 hours after it began.

Paris public prosecutor Remy Heitz said there was no obvious indication the fire was arson. Fifty people were working on what would be a long and complex investigation, officials said. One firefighter was injured but no one else was hurt, with the fire starting at around 6.30 pm after the building was closed to the public for the evening. Firefighters examined the facade, with its spectacular 10-metre filigreed stained-glass rose window still intact. They could be seen walking atop the belfries as police kept the area in lockdown.

Investigators will not be able to enter the cathedral’s blackened nave until experts are satisfied its walls withstood the heat and the building is structurally sound.

The fire swiftly ripped through the cathedral’s oak roof supports, where workmen had been carrying out extensive renovations to the spire’s timber-framed supports. The Paris prosecutor has opened an investigation into “involuntary destruction by fire”. Police on Tuesday began questioning the workers involved in the restoration.