Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, is on fire.

[t2andreo]

I think the meant 100 meters perhaps. But dropping a large volume of very heavy water (all big buckets of water are heavy) on a weak roof is a prescription for structural failure... Even I, a lay person, could appreciate that. The physics are indisputable.

But, then again, hindsight is always 20-20. The pompiers did a fine job, all things considered.

No direct fatalities, only one serious injury to a firefighter, damage limited to the roof structure - mostly. Most of the most important religious relics and art masterpieces saved or salvaged. Not bad...at least IMHO.

Kudos to the Paris fire brigade...

 

[Kathor1]

There are even more Gothic cathedrals without their original wooden support roof, among them the two other masterpieces of French Gothic architecture:

• Chartres: roof support structure was rebuilt with metal beams following a fire in 1836
• Reims: roof support structure was done in concrete following destruction during WWI

The huge Cologne Cathedral which is in a class of its own because of the extraordinary long time it took to finish it, namely 600 years, is also equipped with a roof support structure made of iron, built in the 19th century.

Charlemagne's Aachener Dom near the Belgian-German border is exposed to the same high risk of fire as Notre-Dame de Paris because in Aachen the wooden roof support dates from 1656. They have a sprinkler system installed, though.

BTW, in France it is the French state who owns all churches built before 1905 so that includes Notre Dame de Paris. Ownership of church buildings is regulated differently in the various European countries. The Vatican doesn't own that many church buildings. Cologne Cathedral is the property of a cathedral chapter (an association). I actually don't know who owns Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. Anyone?

 

[Kathor1]

I've just come across an article about the review of the security protocols of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela following the fire at Notre Dame. Daniel Lorenzo who is the director of the Fundación Catedral, clarified "that the situation of the cathedral in Santiago is different from the one in Paris in so far as [the renovation work] is not done on a wooden roof but on a roof of concrete and stone. It doesn't burn easily if at all. However there are also areas inside where wood is present and where the possibility of a fire must be taken into consideration." The security protocols also include the use of the botafumeiro.