What a horror.

The roof is gone. The walls are predominately stone. But everything inside at this point is assuredly destroyed. All that burning roof fell INTO the church. Then there is all the water they are spraying into it. I've heard that alot of the art had been removed during the renovations that were going on. With a little luck SOME of the works were saved. It's just awful to contemplate. What Hitler tried to accomplish and failed, accident and fate succeeded.

The stone doesn't burn, but the building loses structural integrity and collapses.

they can't long stand without a roof. The flying buttresses will hold for a while, but they need to get a roof on soon. The magnitude of the loss is unimaginable. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be in Paris today.

Link to tweet

may have inadvertently sparked the fire.

Lots of old wood in the framing would serve as the perfect fuel.

Since large old spaces like this are designed to be airy, there is plenty of oxygen to keep the fire going.

Years ago a building on the college campus where I work (that was around 120 years old) was undergoing renovations and a welder accidentally set fire to a wooden beam in the roof. It was almost unbelievable how fast that became a roaring fire that only left the brick shell standing by the time firefighters got the blaze put out.

all really huge fires.

course the fire will take, but now - probably not going to be spared

So sad, cannot comprehend

I realize everything is priceless. That’s why I wonder.

The stain glass windows, quarrying the rock, building the walls and support columns at the same time; all of those are skills that they had in abundance in the middle ages, but are exceedingly rare today.

I find it ironic that there are dozens of these churches across Europe; that they built hundreds of years ago with primitive tools, that are so difficult, if not impossible, to replicate today with all of our modern technology.

The contents as well. Just such a loss.

Makes me weepy.

The many craftsman there will likely be called to help.

I cannot believe this is happening.