Paris – Notre-Dame fire

On 15th April 2019 at around 18:20 CEST, a structure fire broke out in the iconic Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in Paris. The fire burned for about 15 hours and destroyed the building‘s spire, most of its roof and severely damaged its upper walls. The vaulted ceiling prevented too much damage from occurring to the interior and also largely contained the burning roof as it collapsed. Much of the historic art work and religious relics were removed from the burning structure early enough and remain unharmed whereas others were damaged by the smoke and many were destroyed. Three emergency workers were injured but there were no casualties.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron launched a fundraising campaign in aid of the restoration work that is to be done and raised over 1 billion € as of 22nd April 2019. To completely restore the cathedral will most likely take twenty years or possibly more.