I heart Paris in the Springtime

astonishing.

Shit, hope they got everyone out.

The spire was undergoing renovation so I wouldn't be surprised if it spread from there. It's tragic that such a thing could happen in spite of the painstaking precautions they no doubt took.

oh my god

they've been doing work on the roof for a few weeks so this is probably connected to this.

I mean, a huge stone building is not just going to burn down. but the roof looks like it'll be gone. most of the top of the church, including the big spire, is only from the mid 19th century.

The building can and will probably be restored but there are a lot of irreplaceable artefacts in there. Hopefully it is just the roof and it looks worse than it is, but it looks extremely bad.

christ

Macron is supposed to speak on national tv in 20 minutes, maybe he's behind this

Another glaring attempt at deflecting attention from the indefatigable gilets jaunes.

Bitter joshing aside, he reportedly decided to postpone his speech.

yes it's been postponed

The entire framework is doomed, apparently. One side is from the 19th, the other from the 13th century. Fuck.

this is sickening

It sometimes feels like there are more roofing/restoration projects that end in fires than not :-/

Indeed, Glasgow School of Art... twice.

tv is reporting that yes the whole thing may collapse

do we know for a fact that varg was not in the area?

He does live in France.

You mean Louis Cachet.

god, these pics from CNN https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/15/world/notre-dame-cathedral-fire/index.html

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190415133935-04-notre-dame-fire-0415-exlarge-169.jpg

it seems the spire has already collapsed

yes, the flèche came down about 15 minutes ago.

There is yet hope for the rest of the building (and the artworks therein). Much depends on the vault, apparently.

Do they not have drop planes or helicopters like in the American West?

Here is the spire collapsing

The moment #NotreDame’s spire fell pic.twitter.com/XUcr6Iob0b

— Patrick Galey (@patrickgaley) April 15, 2019

the pictures and videos are magnificent tbh

An arsonist's wet dream, to be sure.

So upsetting.

I don't know if it's comforting or overwhelming to think the world is already on fire and then have something so important visibly be on fire.

the second one

I can smell the smoke now.

This is so horrific. I’ve been to Paris several times and saw the outside but didn’t go in - I always assumed it would be there to go back to. And now it’s probably gone forever if they can’t stop the fire soon.

My company has an office not too far away at Place de la Madeleine and I feel just awful for all my friends there, and for all of France.

they're now moving out the art that they can, and covering up the ones they can't, to protect from smoke damage

Not an eyeroll big enough

We are closely monitoring the fire at the #NotreDame Cathedral in Paris, France pic.twitter.com/APUe57lbSo

— NYPDCounterterrorism (@NYPDCT) April 15, 2019

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

the firefighters are concentrating on keeping the walls cool, to prevent collapse

this fucking sucks

last night i was reading a novel in which notre dame was destroyed, and was a little freaked out when i heard

now i'm just sad

one of my residents just told me that she and her husband had planned to go there for christmas eve this year

Do they not have drop planes or helicopters like in the American West?

Apparently the reason they haven't done this is because the cathedral risks collapsing under the weight of the drop.

I saw that. Also I was reminding that dumping cold water on hot rocks = disaster

This thread does a great job explaining the issues surrounding extinguishing the fire here.

After my last tweet, I got a couple DMs asking firefighting related questions about the #NotreDameFire.

I -like most of you- are watching from a world away. But if you’re interested in some profession specific things I’d note/be concerned of, you can follow this thread. pic.twitter.com/golMnbYsDK

— Gregg Favre (@GreggFavre) April 15, 2019

The idea of those extraordinary rose windows being gone is something I can't even comprehend.

Much has already been lost forever, like the Buddhas of Bamyan or the mausoleums of Timbuktu. Or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon…

Have been dwelling on the Bamiyan buddhas alongside this, catastrophe can be natural or manufactured and it can strike anywhere and ring out for long centuries. I don't long for the return of the temple cult but would I wail and weep at the western wall? I might.

Or the National Museum of Brazil.

A priest from Notre Dame Cathedral reports that all the art work and the holy relics contained in the cathedral has been saved.

— Medievalists.net (@Medievalists) April 15, 2019

amazing if true, but also unless you count stained glass windows etc as art i guess?

bbc just offered an on-screen quote of a statement by macron by translating the actual name of the church as "Our Lady Of Paris" thx bbc, helpful