Can’t believe anyone could be spending so much time arguing about the wisdom of a water drop just to prove that Dear Leader is infallible. The material properties of many of the structural elements and how they would react to the weight of the water is somewhat iffy. I happen to think the French authorities made the right call, but then again I’m not trying to prove Dear Leader infallible either.
Building saved, relics mostly saved, money pouring in for the reconstruction. Hats off to the firemen who faced an enormous task and pulled it off.
Yeah, you have to be spectacularly arrogant and ignorant to assume that you know better how to fight a fire from another continent than the professionals on the ground. Do you remember on 9-11 all the kind words from Europeans to us? Just once, I wish Americans were like that.
Yeah, I can’t imagine Queen Elizabeth sitting on her toilet and tweeting: “Must bring in helicopters to evacuate WTC. Americans must act quickly. SAD!”
What terrible, terrible news. I visited Notre Dame only once, in the fall of 1985, when I was in Paris to see a college friend studying at the Sorbonne. I still remember it well. The cathedral was then, and will be again, a historic, impressive and holy place.
Americans are like that. Have you been reading this thread or been on social media at all? I sure that there was at least one European who was making silly statements like Magiver. One dumbass statement that I heard some guy trying to make a moral equivalence between a terrorist attack that intentionally killed thousands and a presumably accidental fire that ruined a great work of art where one person was injured.
My neighbors are French and devout Catholic. I spent a few minutes talking to the mom today at our kids’ bus stop. I told her that I’d only visited Notre Dame once, but I was heartbroken by the news. We talked a little about how culturally and historically significant it is. She said that a wealthy French guy who owns a massive forest had pledged the use of lumber from the forest to rebuild the cathedral. I haven’t had a chance to look up the details on that yet, though. She also mentioned that the relics of St. Louis had been saved.
Your king Donald Trump was wrong, and you are wrong. Just accept it, for God’s sake.
Professional firefighters chose not to do this, and that’s because they know what they’re doing, and in this area, you absolutely do not. People with decades of experience decided water bombing was not a good idea. They are right, and you are wrong. It is not always necessary to defend your leader.
You shouldn’t be too tough on Magiver. He’s said many times that he works at an airport, which is a profession that is completely interchangeable with being a firefighter specializing in extinguishing blazes in 12th century historic buildings using airplanes.
Nothing can last forever. It is a tragedy to lose what was there, but I am certain that whatever they build, it will also be beautiful and people will be able to enjoy it fingers crossed for another 900 years.
Very happy to know that stained glasses, and in particular the main front one have survived, contrarily to what was said last night. That’s probably the most important thing that coud have been destroyed (although I might be biased, I’m particularly fond of stained glasses). It’s sad that the ancient carpentry was destroyed, and presumably some more minor artwork have disappeared too, but all in all it isn’t that bad from my point of view. Even the historical organ seems to be mostly safe.
Drop the water from up high & it disburses; drop the water from down low & you have a different issue, which you, as a pilot should be aware of. What buildings, antennas, spans (spires) are low & potentially in the path of a plane flying low enough to drop water? Before it’s collapse, the spire was 300’ high. Any plane flying in before it’s collapse would need to be over 300’ high (+ margin of safety) which means that water is coming from hundreds of feet up & can both disburse somewhat (rendering it useless towards firefighting) & have time to gain terminal velocity for what does come down. Enough coming down on the structure might just be enough to cave the roof/destroy a wall/buttress.
Have you ever been on the fireground of a large, multi-alarm fire? There are dozens & in this case hundreds of firefighters. Between wearing all that gear, breathing thru SCBA, the physical exertion & working in extremely hot conditions it’s exhausting. It’s not like TV or movies, there are rules as to how long one can work without a break; one or two tanks & you’re required to sit out for a bit, maybe have vitals taken before the commanders would consider letting you go back in. Many of the firefighters are not doing anything to actively fight the fire at any given moment. They are either the ones recuperating or the relief waiting to go in, kind of like a relay race. They are all in close proximity to the burning structure. You do realize what a couple hundred kilos of water would do to them if it suddenly landed on them?
Finally, how do you propose filling up your tanker airplanes? Will they just fly under the bridges in the River Seine?
On first thought, ‘use tankers’ isn’t such an outlandish thought but when you take a second to stop & consider it it doesn’t work for many reasons. You’ve been explained these reasons & just double & triple down on it.
Planes would be a spectacularly bad idea; helicopters, if available, would be marginally better but still have many of the same/similar issues.
