User:Martuccid2/Notre dame fire

On 15 April 2019, just before 18:20 CEST, a fire broke out beneath the roof of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. By the time the structure fire was extinguished, the building's spire had collapsed, most of its roof had been destroyed, and its upper walls were severely damaged. The Catholic cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris ("Our Lady of Paris"), part of the "Paris, Banks of the Seine" UNESCO World Heritage Site, Construction began in 1163, during the reign of King Louis VII, and was completed in 1345. (NewYorkTimes) Its walls and interior vaulted ceiling are of stone; its roof and flèche (spire) were of wood (much of it 13th-century oak), sheathed in lead to exclude water. After construction had begun, flying buttresses were added to the design of the cathedral. The design is meant to hold the thin, tall, Gothic-style walls up and prevent cracks in them. The flying buttresses are meant to provide support to the structure but also add to the cathedral’s Gothic style. The spire was rebuilt several times, most recently in the 19th century because of how badly it was damaged and neglected in the 1790's, during the French Revolution.

The cathedral's stonework has been severely eroded by years of weather and pollution, and the spire had extensively rotted because fissures in its lead sheathing were admitting water. Three months after the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, reports of a new, previously unheeded threat to local residents have emerged: lead poisoning. The roof timbers were dry, spongy and powdery with age. In 2014, the Ministry of Culture estimated needed renovations at 150 million, though the board overseeing the cathedral’s restoration has received more than $900 million in donations from 340,000 donors in 150 countries. It is said that a temporary metal scaffolding was built during the rebuilding of the cathedral, which was completed last summer at a cost of 151 million dollars, continuously when ignoring the 3 month pause in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. When important documents are leaked to the media, the people understood how some locations surrounding the fire-damaged cathedral have been found to contain certain levels of lead. The contamination from this substance ranges between 500 to 800 times the official safe level. At the time of the fire, the spire was undergoing restoration and scaffolding was being erected over the transept.

Extensive attention had been given to the risk of fire at the cathedral. The Paris Fire Brigade drilled regularly to prepare for emergencies there, including on-site exercises in 2018; a firefighter was posted to the cathedral each day; and fire wardens checked conditions beneath the roof three times daily. Although there will most certainly be delays and debates, the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is said to reopen to the public by 2024. This would be 5 years of heavy rebuilding after the devastating fire that ripped through this important Paris landmark. As also mentioned in the New York Times, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo states that the Notre-Dame, "had to be left in its beauty and have everything around it be a showcase for that beauty".