Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on fire (PHOTO, VIDEO)
Smoke and fire is seen leaping from the top of Notre Dame, the iconic Paris cathedral. Videos shot by people show the blaze engulfing the spire between its bell towers.
© FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP
The fire broke out in the cathedral on Monday afternoon, a Paris fire department confirmed, adding that a major operation to tackle the fire is underway.
© AFP / Geoffroy van der Hasselt
https://twitter.com/almacy/status/1117835910131978241
https://twitter.com/ccasacub/status/1117836234045321216
The Medieval cathedral is one of the main attractions of the French capital, seeing 12 million tourists a year.
https://twitter.com/Mr_Innovation/status/1117838538639384576
The incident took place as the jewel of the Gothic architecture was undergoing a major overhaul costing € 11 million ($ 12.43 million), with the renovation works being expected to be finished around 2022.
https://twitter.com/R_Vanyper/status/1117844627862822915
Last week, 16 bronze statues representing 12 apostles and four evangelists from the New Testament were lifted off the spire of the cathedral by crane. Some scaffolding can now be seen close to the flames leaping out near the cathedral’s spire.
The spire itself was made of wood and covered with lead has long been in a bad shape as the elements of the construction dating back to the mid-nineteenth century have been damaged by weather, pollution and time.
The cathedral was being built from 13th to 15th century.
Original: https://www.rt.com/news/456608-notre-dame-cathedral-fire-paris/
This is a sad, breathtaking loss of European cultural history. This building was magnificent inside and out.
Be lucky it didn't catch fire in the U.S., buildings in the United States have a tendency to collapse at free fall speeds when they burn
Watching, but can't believe
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