Notre Dame Cathedral burning

[JasonPratt]

Lots of damage across the whole structure, but largely confined (as might be expected) to the upper floors which are more wood than stone.

All relics and treasures, plus most of the art, reported to be saved. Initial reports are the fire was kept cool enough that the basic structure could still be good.

Fire started in an attic. Causes unknown, but most likely an accident by the current renovators (or connected to the renovation).


General extent of the damage. The tall thin tower in the middle went up like a torch, collapsed before sundown.




The altar stands!

[SirAndrewD]

A historical tragedy.

But, also, it'll unite France to commit to a rebuild far more than their halfhearted renovation that possibly led to the tragedy. 

The important parts still stand, and they'll rebuild it.   It'll stand for another thousand years.

[RommelFox]

Thankfully that vaulted ceiling held up under the immense weight and heat.

JMJ

[Anguille]

Someone's really need to have a good insurance police....

[Pete Dero]

I'm surprised there is anything left from the interior after watching the fire yesterday evening (local time).

[jomni]

Ubisoft donates. AC Unity free to play. Some say the game's Notre-Dame can be used a blueprint for reconstruction.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/17/notre-dame-fire-apple-ubisoft-assassins-creed-unity/?sr_source=Facebook

[airboy]

Thankfully that vaulted ceiling held up under the immense weight and heat.

JMJ

I saw a aerial photograph today showing that most of the roof/ceilings in the building have been destroyed and the interior is open to the elements.  It seems that the walls and the two end towers all stand, but the roofs are gone.  Am I missing something or did you comment before the smoke cleared?  I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like almost all of the ceilings/roof is gone.

[Barthheart]

Thankfully that vaulted ceiling held up under the immense weight and heat.

JMJ

I saw a aerial photograph today showing that most of the roof/ceilings in the building have been destroyed and the interior is open to the elements.  It seems that the walls and the two end towers all stand, but the roofs are gone.  Am I missing something or did you comment before the smoke cleared?  I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like almost all of the ceilings/roof is gone.

I think that the rooves are gone but most of the ceilings are still intact. Some video I saw seemed to show that one ceiling had collapsed, maybe the one hit by the falling spire. Most of the rest of the interior seemed to be shrouded in darkness.
The rooves were entirely wooden structures but it looked, to me on grainy video, that the ceiling were mostly stone/brick/tile of some kind. And while some individual pieces had fallen out, they were mostly intact.

[airboy]

Bathhart - I studied castle and cathedral construction in College.  My wife and I also climbed to the top of Salisbury Cathedral in England about 10 years ago.

The roofs in these buildings are the trunks and first branches of incredibly old trees - usually oak.  Those timbers have been there for a thousand years for Notre Dame.  They seem to have caught fire and all burned away.  That killed the upper roof structure.

The first ceilings are vaulted and made of fairly light stone.  You may be right that most of those survived - I cannot tell from this photograph which is the best one I could find.

[steve58]

Found this before/after satellite photo:


(left is the cathedral in September 2018;  right is April 17, 2019)

[Jarhead0331]

Ubisoft donates. AC Unity free to play. Some say the game's Notre-Dame can be used a blueprint for reconstruction.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/17/notre-dame-fire-apple-ubisoft-assassins-creed-unity/?sr_source=Facebook

Very classy move by ubisoft...I'd say it will be pretty sad if they need to use a video game as a blueprint for reconstruction. Its sort of like the military using the back of a paper restaurant table setting as a map to navigate.

[DoctorQuest]

Found this before/after satellite photo:


(left is the cathedral in September 2018;  right is April 17, 2019)

I'm impressed how much of the structure is intact. That being said, I am not sure how much of the remaining structure was weakened by the fire. Good find, Steve!

[JasonPratt]

It does come with the inherent drawback of having to use Uplay...  >:D

But often their games are worth it.

[Gusington]

I played through the Notre Dame missions of Unity and they are very detailed. Closest I've been to the real thing yet!

[JasonPratt]

A quick but nicely produced mini-doc on the cathedral by Invictus (a Total War channel gamer whom many of us appreciate for using TW engines in detailed documentaries over the years):

No game footage was used for this video, btw.