It was devastating to see the centuries old Parisian Landmark in flames this morning and reports claimed that renovation works were undergoing and might have been the most likely cause of the fire. Flames that began in the early evening burst through the roof of the centuries-old cathedral and engulfed the spire, which collapsed, quickly followed by the entire roof.A huge plume of smoke wafted across the city and ash fell over a large area.
“Like all our compatriots, I am sad this evening to see this part of all of us burn,” President Emmanuel Macron tweeted
“Basically, the whole rooftop is gone. I see no hope for the building,” said witness Jacek Poltorak, watching the fire from a fifth-floor balcony two blocks from the southern facade of the cathedral, one of France’s most visited places.
Firefighters cleared the area around Notre-Dame, which sits on an island in the River Seine and marks the very centre of Paris. Buildings around were evacuated.
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“Everything is collapsing,” a police officer near the scene said as the entire roof of the cathedral continued to burn.
The spectacle of flames leaping from the cathedral’s wooden roof — its spire glowing red then turning into a virtual cinder — stunned thousands of onlookers who gathered along the banks of the Seine and packed into the plaza of the nearby Hôtel de Ville, gasping and covering their mouths in horror and wiping away tears.“It is like losing a member of one’s own family,” said Pierre Guillaume Bonnet, a 45-year-old marketing director. “For me there are so many memories tied up in it,” he said of the cathedral.
Mohamed Megdoul, 33, a film producer, brushed away tears and said the fire had destroyed, “a thousand years of history.”
“This belonged to the whole world, and now it is disappearing,” he said.
As the last rush of tourists were trying to get in for the day, the doors of Notre-Dame were abruptly shut without explanation, witnesses said. Within moments, tiny bits of white smoke started rising from the spire — which, at 295 feet, was the highest part of the cathedral.
It surely is a dark day in history as a place of extreme historic importance just burned away leaving the city and the world in tears.
