Notre-Dame: Over $600,000,000 pledged for its rebuild

[thewayne]

and 50 investigators assigned to find out what happened, it is likely that the cause of the fire was due to construction, but we'll find out for sure. The investigation is likely to take quite some time to perform. I've been on lots of construction sites and I know how easy it would be for a fire to start: an angle grinder, torch mishap, or electrical short and *poof*.

The fire was extinguished about 8am GMT, 2am EST, after it burned for 15 hours. Firefighters were able to get into the main body of the cathedral, which helped save the main structure. Our Beloved Leader helpfully tweeted that they should have used wildfire water bombers, which would have probably collapsed the roof.

Overall, it could have been much worse. While the spire was lost, the bell towers survived and most of the art treasures as did the stained glass windows. There's structural damage, and as of right now restoration experts are not being allowed in until after structural engineers deem it safe.

Air France is going to provide free flights to people involved in the restoration. All of the money thus-far pledged is from French corporations and rich families.

It is a tragic thing, but it looks like it will get a complete rebuild, so a quite magnificent Phoenix will rise from the ashes.

This BBC article has photos of the post-fire interior. It's not as bad as you might think.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47943705

Comments

[seasonoftowers]

She stayed beautiful even as she burned. My deepest respect to her builders, and to the firefighters who kept the damage from spreading further. Worried about the state of the limestone after being exposed to so much fire and water, though.

[graydon]

It was already in bad shape as masonry. (One of the things people don't mention very much is that 19th century coal smoke and 20th century diesel exhaust are hell on limestone and more hell on mortar.)

I suspect they're going to have to empty the shell (very, very carefully), take structure apart, cut new stone, and build a new one to match anywhere the roof burned off. And that's going to force a lot of disassembly-level repair on lower parts in consequence.

Which is completely in keeping with the traditions of cathedrals! Also in keeping with the traditions of cathedrals are a massive screaming argument about how much needs to be done, and who shall do it.

[seasonoftowers]

The pre-existing damage is part of what I'm worried about. Not going to be easy.

Folk on twitter were joking about fire being a normal component of the life cycle of cathedrals. I'm looking forward to people visiting it in 2400 and reading about the fire on a plaque somewhere.

[thewayne]

True dat!  As many laser scans and such of that cathedral, they can rebuild it from scratch and make it absolutely faithful.

[seasonoftowers]

You'd still lose a lot of information - as some archeologists said, you can figure out stuff about how something was built by looking at the tool scratches on stone and how they weathered, and this is not likely to be reproduced

[thewayne]

Very true.  There's the concept of the Ship of Theseus: if enough of something is replaced, is it still the same thing?

[silveradept]

There's a tag that didn't close on the entry.

[thewayne]

Thanks, I noticed and fixed it just a bit ago.