My men prevented a bigger disaster, fire chief insists
THE Paris fire chief last night paid tribute to his crews, saying they had saved the cathedral from total destruction.
Commander Jean-Claude Gallet said a major accomplishment of hundreds of firefighters was stopping the flames from spreading to the north tower belfry.
He said two-thirds of Notre Dame’s roofing ‘has been ravaged’ and one firefighter was injured. Fire crews will keep working overnight to cool down the structure, Mr Gallet added.
However, there was criticism that the fire service had not responded quickly enough – and didn’t seem to have the right equipment to tackle such a large blaze.
Flames appeared to be raging inside the cathedral for a long time before water jets capable of stopping them were mobilised.
Many observers, watching the tragedy unfold on TV, asked whether the fire teams had been well-equipped enough to deal with flames at such a height. Last night, the French interior ministry tried to defend the response – insisting that 400 firemen had been deployed.
The ministry suggested that aircraft were not used because it was feared that the weight of water falling at such a height could cause large parts of the cathedral to collapse.
In an online statement it said that an ‘exceptional device’ had been deployed to tackle the fire, with a crane lifting a fireman to tackle the blaze.
However, pictures appeared to show that this was the only one of its kind and residents questioned why more pressure hoses and cherry-picker cranes were not on site to be able to douse the flames from above as they took hold of the scaffolding and the roof near to the spire.
As the blaze raged, the Paris authorities insisted that getting fire teams to the top of the building ‘was almost impossible’.
‘It’s much too high up, and the only access is stone and spiral staircases,’ said an emergency services source. ‘This means that the fire has been able to spread across the roof.’
Local resident Michel Dupont said those living around the cathedral were upset more equipment was not on site to spray water at the flames high up. ‘A lot of us are asking questions about the authorities’ response,’ he said.
Liz Boeder, another Parisian, said ‘we need California firefighters’, in reference to the water- carrying aircraft used to tackle the forest fires in the US last year. Others who watched the blaze unfold on live TV also raised questions.
Kent Ardleb said: ‘What a tragedy. Notre Dame cathedral is lost. Where is the damn fire brigade?’
Another posted: ‘How come there aren’t any fire fighters or water jets to be seen on any photos!?’
Dave Pasin said: ‘It seems there are no firefighters to be seen, no water, nothing?’