WERE HERO FIREMEN ONLY CALLED TO FIGHT BLAZE 23 MINS AFTER FIRST ALARM?
As building chief who said he was proud of his work is investigated...
THE devastating blaze at Notre Dame was missed by officials for 23 minutes after a fire alarm, it emerged last night.
Although the alarm was triggered at 6.20pm on Monday, cathedral attendants failed to spot the fire in the roof until another alarm went off at 6.43pm.
It is possible they missed the outbreak because the attic area was hemmed in by layers of scaffolding.
But the critical delay will raise questions over whether more of the historic structure could have been saved.
Paris public prosecutor Rémy Heitz said: ‘There was an initial alarm at 6.20pm, followed by a procedure to verify this but no fire was found. Then, there was a second alarm at 6.43pm and at that point a fire was detected in the structure.’
He added: ‘The investigation is going to be long and complex.’
France’s deputy interior minister Laurent Nuñez said the Gothic marvel came within ‘15 to 30 minutes’ of total destruction. Last night dozens of workers were being questioned by police over what they were doing before the fire broke out.
Some were employees of Le Bras Freres – a company known as the ‘Cathedral Restorers’ – which had won a £5 million contract to renovate the spire at the Paris heritage site. Prosecutors will investigate to find out if any of the workmen should be brought to court for cutting corners.
Julien Le Bras, the 32-year- old boss of the specialist construction company, said 12 employees were working on the roof of the cathedral that day. But he insisted all of his staff had left Notre Dame by the time the blaze broke out.
Mr Le Bras, who boasted about his firm’s ability to protect historic sites when his company won the contract to repair the 300ft spire in 2017, expressed his ‘extreme sadness’ over the fire.
During a visit to the cathedral, he said: ‘ All of our colleagues, workmen and others will assist the enquiry without reserve. Everybody will try and shine a light on the origin of this drama. Not a single of my employees was on site at the time of the fire. The methods of the enquiry must be respected. It’s the job of the investigators to work out what happened.
‘At the moment we’re working with architects and civil servants to make sure the building is secure. We’ll use our expertise to see if risks exist, and to plan future work.’ Le Bras Freres, which is based near the city of Metz in north- east France, employs 180 staff and has carried out restoration work on at least 12 other sites, including the Parthenon in Athens.
The firm also owns Europe Echafaudage, the company responsible for the scaffolding at Notre Dame. In 2017, the two companies made almost £22 million.
Le Bras Freres, which specialises in carpentry and roofing, beat off bids from a number of far bigger companies to secure contracts for work at the cathedral.
Mr Le Bras suggested there were other companies involved in the restoration work, but would not divulge who they were.
The relatively young construction boss had previously heralded his firm’s ‘ technical ability and competence’ in restoring historic buildings.
In a film posted online, Mr Le Bras said: ‘We are proud of our work on historic buildings. We have the technical ability and the competence for this work. Our first thought is to protect the values of historical buildings – it’s in our DNA.’
Implying that his company’s restoration work lasts for generations, he added: ‘We won’t work with a ten-year guarantee – we aim for 150 years.’ Commenting on Notre Dame’s famous spire, which collapsed in the blaze, he said: ‘The spire is 105m tall and there is no question that we will put any pressure on it with the scaffolding.’
When the Mail visited the company’s headquarters in Jarny, staff refused to comment.
‘Ability and competence’