No sign of arson at Notre Dame
The fire that tore through the Notre Dame cathedral was probably caused by accident, French prosecutors said on Tuesday after firefighters doused the last flames in the ruins overnight and the nation grieved for the destruction of one of its symbols.
More than 400 firefighters were needed to tame the inferno that consumed the roof and collapsed the spire of the eight-centuries-old cathedral.
They worked through the night to extinguish the fire some 14 hours after it began.
Paris public prosecutor Remy Heitz said there was no obvious indication that the fire was arson.
Fifty people were working on what would be a long and complex investigation.
One firefighter was injured but no-one else was hurt in the blaze, which began after the building was closed to the public for the evening.
From the outside, the imposing bell towers and outer walls, with their vast flying buttresses, still stood firm, but the inside and the upper structure were gutted by the blaze.
Firefighters examined the gothic facade and could be seen walking atop the belfries as police kept the area off limits to anyone else.
Investigators will not be able to enter the cathedral’s blackened nave until experts are satisfied its stone walls withstood the heat and the building is structurally sound.
“Our job today is to monitor the structure and its movements,” fire service spokesperson Gabriel Plus said.
The fire swiftly ripped through the cathedral’s timbered roof supports, where workmen had been carrying out extensive renovations to the spire’s wooden frame.
The prosecutor has opened an investigation into “involuntary destruction by fire”.
Police on Tuesday began questioning the workers involved in the restoration, the prosecutor’s office said.
Hundreds of stunned onlookers had lined the banks of the River Seine late into the night as the fire raged, reciting prayers and singing liturgical music in harmony as they stood in vigil.
It was at Notre Dame that Napoleon was made emperor in 1804, Pope Pius X beatified Joan of Arc in 1909 and former presidents Charles de Gaulle and Francois Mitterrand were mourned.
Condolences flooded in from around the world.
Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, was praying for those affected, the Vatican said, adding: “Notre Dame will always remain – and we have seen this in these hours – a place where believers and non-believers can come together in the most dramatic moments of French history, and will always remain a symbol of French national unity.”
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth expressed deep sadness, while her son Prince Charles said he was “utterly heartbroken”.
President Emmanuel Macron promised to rebuild the Notre Dame, considered among the finest examples of European Gothic architecture, visited by more than 13-million people a year.
The Notre Dame is owned by the state.
It has been at the centre of a years-long row between the nation and the Paris archdiocese over who should finance restoration work to collapsed balustrades, crumbling gargoyles and cracked facades.
It was too early to estimate the cost of the damage, the heritage charity Fondation du Patrimoine said, but it is likely to run into hundreds of millions of euros.
The rival billionaire owners of France’s two biggest luxury fashion empires, Francois-Henri Pinault of Kering and Bernard Arnault of LVMH, pledged ß100m (R1.59bn) and ß200m (R3.18bn) to the restoration respectively.
Oil company Total pledged ß100m. The city of Paris said it would provide ß50m (R795m).
The company carrying out the renovation works when the blaze broke out said it would co-operate fully with the investigation.
Officials breathed a sigh of relief that many relics and artworks had been saved.
At one point, firefighters, police officers and municipal workers formed a human chain to remove the treasures, including a centuries-old crown of thorns made from reeds and gold, and the tunic believed to have been worn by Saint Louis, a 13th-century king of France.
“Notre Dame was our sister, it is so sad, we are all mourning,” Parisian Olivier Lebib said.
“I have lived with her for 40 years. Thank God that the stone structure has withstood the fire.” –