Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.David K. Li and Doha Madaniwas extinguished early Tuesday after a nine-hour battle, authorities said.
Macron said a national fundraising campaign to restore Notre Dame would be launched Tuesday, and he called on the world's"greatest talents" to help.Pledges from French businessmen have already started rolling in. Billionaire Bernard Arnault's family and his LVMH luxury goods group — which is behind Louis Vuitton — said that they would donate €200 million .
Flames could be seen near scaffolding — high at the top of the famous church where $6.8 million in renovations were being completed — and billowing smoke was visible from miles away in the French capital.Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said that many of the precious artifacts inside the cathedral, including a relic believed to be worn by Jesus Christ which was stored in the collapsed spire, had been saved.
Onlookers were in tears as they witnessed the flames destroying one of Paris' most famed and popular landmarks. "It was an absolute nightmare," Marang, a 47-year-old consultant, told NBC News."I ran to the cathedral and saw the spire of the cathedral falling.""Something just collapsed inside me," he added."One of the worst things I've ever seen."French historian Camille Pascal told broadcaster BFM that the fire marked"the destruction of invaluable heritage.
Glenn Corbett, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College in New York, said there is a history of churches, synagogues and temples going up in flames during renovations — as workers use torches or welding or cutting equipment that could be sources of ignition."If there is a most vulnerable time for a church, it is when it is under construction because we get people who are using torches or welding or cutting that are of course emitting forces," Corbett added.
It looks like the gargoyles were trying to leave in the smoke!
Brave men!