PARIS, France (NBC) – Firefighters are on standby in case Monday’s fire that damaged parts of Paris’ Notre Dame starts again. With the loss of the cathedral’s roof, the structure is unstable, and there’s a fear among French officials that there could be a partial collapse.
The cathedral of Notre Dame still stands, but without her elegant spire, burned away by a devastating fire.
Paris Archdiocese spokesman Father Laurent Stalla said, “For me, Notre Dame is… probably as many as for Americans, it’s a ‘mother’, and suddenly you feel that your mother has been hurt by the fire.”
While an investigation is still ongoing, French officials are so far calling the blaze “unintentional.” They suspect it started around 6:30 Monday night among scaffolding at the base of the spire. But the flames spread quickly across the Medieval roof made of so many timbers it was nicknamed “The Forest.”
The heat kept building and rising until the spire came crashing down into the church’s interior, fanning the flames even further.
Around 400 firefighters finally contained the flames enough to go inside
Firefighter announced they’d manage to save the structure, Notre Dame would survive. And they said major works of art and relics, including the Holy Crown of Thorns, were saved.
French President Emanuel Macros told the nation, “The worst has been avoided,” and “Notre Dame will be rebuilt,” he said, “because it is what the French expect, and what their history deserves.”
Around 100 firefighters are on standby in case the fire starts again. But the big concern right now, according to French officials, is that once pieces of this cathedral had been removed, especially the roof, that there could be further shift and that it’s not over yet.
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