At least they got these off (four days ago, the first time in over 100 years!)
I can’t wrap my brain around this. NBC news just said the wooden interior is burning. This is an irreparable loss to the world. 
Damn. I liked that building. So far it looks like the rose window and towers *might *possibly survive.
I’m watching the live feed. They have yet to get the fire under control, let alone put it out. No deaths or injuries reported…but I imagine many hearts have been broken.
I was there at February, 2018. At the risk of sounding ignorant (and no snide jokes from you yahoos! 
) how does this thing burn? It’s all stone is it not?
The entire roof structure is wood.
Ken Follett was on the BBC, and of course he has written long novels on cathedral construction. From what I understood, the roofs are made of wood and when they burn they collapse, creating a huge amount of flammable debris everywhere.
It seems that the whole interior has burned, except for the bell towers.
There were wooden beams and paneling dating back to the 13th century, and it must have been extremely flammable.
An irreparable loss, not only to France but to the world.
The just reported that all of the art work and a good part of the antiquities have been saved.
That’s a relief and also the absence of reported injuries at least so far.
Anyway whatever the damage is, France is rich enough to restore the whole thing eventually to something close to its original glory. I hope other countries, especially in Europe, chip in as well.
All the art and relics were saved, according to the reporters in the linked live broadcast. So that’s a relief.
Just once, that man needs to swallow the impulse to say something idiotic.
For a given value of “original” - the spire that collapsed only dates to the 1840s, after all.
What would be really neat-o is if the “Smartest, Hippest” could somehow resist pointing out something some idiot said, at least while one of the world’s most iconic buildings is still in flames.
There are reports that the fire has now spread to one of the towers.
As for “all the art and relics were saved” - I don’t believe that for a second. Some of the more portable items may have been removed in time, but a huge amount must have been lost.
David Muir kept saying, “The French call Notre Dame Our Lady”. Well, of course they do. Notre Dame *literally *means Our Lady in French.
I hope they can save the stone walls. The heat and cooling down cannot be good for their structural strength. And the counterbalances to the buttresses suddenly being removed can’t be helpful, either. I fear the worst.
Yes, the antiquities stored within would be an even bigger loss than just the structure itself.
I visited almost 20 years ago and it was quite memorable. So sad to see the building devastated in this fire. I hope the reports that the artwork inside has been saved are true.
Why? It’s a French/religious building; why should other countries contribute towards rebuilding it. There no humanitarian crisis, like thousands displaced due to a hurricane. We have enough of a backlog to fix in this country as it is, & I’m sure many/most other European countries do too.
This wasn’t totally idiotic; however, I’m sure the Paris Fire Dept is professional & had some preplans for fighting a fire there. Taking advice from a non-fire service person thousands of miles from the scene is probably not the best idea. :rolleyes:
The reason aerial tankers work so well on forest fires is that 1) they’re remote & hard to otherwise get water/fire retardant to & 2) The weight of the water hitting anything remotely in the area but not 100% on target won’t cause any damage. Doing that in an urban area could damage other nearby buildings/people/fire apparatus that isn’t otherwise in danger. You’d want a helicopter (not an airplane) & have it drop from a relatively low height; otherwise, the water dropped would cause significant damage & possibly drop the roof just from the weight of water hitting all at once. Of course getting that low would cause issues for the helo including visibility due to smoke & unstable thermals. A more appropriate tweet would be, “So sad; hope they put it out quickly with minimal damage.” but we’re not supposed to make political comments in breaking news stories.