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Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

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  • Registered Users Posts: 9,605 ✭✭✭gctest50


    There are reports that Notre Dame's three medieval rose windows, dating from around 1250, have exploded in the heat.

    Some were replaced


  • Registered Users Posts: 24,831 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Trump...He just should just shut the fûck up with his ameteur observations of fire fighting 5000 miles away and with no information, to think a free democracy elected the fûcking prîck, Jesus.


  • Registered Users Posts: 67,015 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    There are reports that Notre Dame's three medieval rose windows, dating from around 1250, have exploded in the heat.

    Pictures show at least two of them are gone.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,462 ✭✭✭Oafley Jones


    :D
    It's actually not the worst idea.

    Outside of setting of a fuel air bomb to suck out the air, it is. It’s ****ing moronic.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 886 ✭✭✭Anteayer


    I was watching some French coverage and they're saying that the fire fighters are taking a very gentle and strategic approach to what they're doing to avoid doing excessive damage.

    There's a big risk of cracking the masonry and causing a big structural collapse - so it's more a case of containing it and gently cooling the stonework.


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  • Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    That building is a monument to human ingenuity, persistence and our love of beauty. I'm confident those same human attributes will see her rise from the ashes, altered but magnificent. It's a heartbreaking sight, and only someone devoid of anything worthwhile inside would glory in that destruction.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,378 ✭✭✭✭Sardonicat


    There are reports that Notre Dame's three medieval rose windows, dating from around 1250, have exploded in the heat.
    The stained glass melted.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,306 ✭✭✭dublinman1990


    After seeing that image of the inside of the cathedral above; all can I say is that it looks absolutely horrific.

    France & the people of Paris have lost a magnificent part of their history in art & culture.

    I was shocked to see the images unfolding on TV tonight. I have never had the greatest privilege to visit it myself. But my uncle had visited Paris before when I was a kid in primary school. I never went with him to Paris; but I have been to France twice when I was a teenager visiting places like Calais, Lourdes & Gavarnie.

    My thoughts are with them on this tragic loss. It does not look good that the tower is now getting the flames.

    It now looks very likely that the towers of Notre Dame will be saved tonight which is some bit of hope.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,242 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    :D

    Outside of setting of a fuel air bomb to suck out the air, it is. It’s ****ing moronic.

    Why?

    Obviously some cities believe that using aircraft to deal with urban fires isn't moronic, or they wouldn't have bought them.

    And it's worth noting that the Chinese have developed a firefighting rocket-launcher also for high buildings. It's not an FAE, but it explodes on impact and has a similar effect on the fire.
    b083fe96fac21a0c99b624.jpg

    Just because we've always used guys on ladders with hoses doesn't mean that's the only way to fight a fire in a town.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,325 ✭✭✭xi5yvm0owc1s2b


    It now looks very likely that the towers of Notre Dame will be destroyed later on tonight.

    According to firefighting officials, the towers have been saved.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 10,150 ✭✭✭✭Hurrache


    conorhal wrote: »
    If the EU, who have spent all their time trying my last nerve lately, would like to do one thing that might put them back in my good graces, they could make it a European project to fund the full reconstruction of the cathedral.

    They blather on about a 'European Identity', well they're watching it burn to the ground and they should restore this iconic piece of European heritage, otherwise Notre Dame will forever be a symbol of the decline of western civilization.

    You're very angry over how the EU may or may not react in the future over an ongoing incident.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 886 ✭✭✭Anteayer


    Brave brave men to risk their lives against such a fire Sky News said 400 firefighters wonder is that total true.

    Just to point out it's brave men and women. There are quite a few female firefighters in Paris.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,476 ✭✭✭coolshannagh28


    Tragic but if the stonework survives ie the interior columns ,the walls the flying buttresses, the stone vaults and the towers then the building is retrievable .


  • Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Why?

    Obviously some cities believe that using aircraft to deal with urban fires isn't moronic, or they wouldn't have bought them.

    And it's worth noting that the Chinese have developed a firefighting rocket-launcher. It's not an FAE, but it explodes on impact and has a similar effect on the fire.

    The Chinese might be onto something but the fire in ND would be burning at considerably higher temperatures than a recent structure made of contemporary materials. The updraft from that heat would make any approach from the air dangerous and accuracy doubtful.


  • Registered Users Posts: 24,831 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Tragic but if the stonework survives ie the interior columns ,the walls the flying buttresses, the stone vaults and the towers then the building is retrievable .

    Probably the best we can hope for, one would think that having seeing the footage that the whole interior would be gutted to a cinder.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 886 ✭✭✭Anteayer


    Anyone at all familiar with the Île de la Cité area where Notre Dame located, would realise how ridiculous the idea that you could drop water from the air or do anything dramatic like that is.

    It's a river island that's jam packed with historic buildings many of which are at least as old as the cathedral itself

    There's absolutely no way you could do anything other than be very careful and cautious about how you approach it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 24,831 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Anteayer wrote: »
    Anyone at all familiar with the Île de la Cité area where Notre Dame located, would realise how ridiculous the idea that you could drop water from the air or do anything dramatic like that is.

    It's a river island that's jam packed with historic buildings many of which are at least as old as the cathedral itself

    There's absolutely no way you could do anything other than be very careful and cautious about how you approach it.


    Correct, but what about firing rockets at it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,894 ✭✭✭Nunu


    Varta wrote: »
    Watching Notre Dame burning makes me feel so sad. It also makes me wonder if we are long past our zenith in terms of art and the creation of beautiful and lasting works. 850 years ago architects with pen and paper designed Notre Dame and builders without power tools built it. Yet today, with computer aided design and immense building power, all we get is glass boxes that will be lucky to last 50 years, never mind 850. While in fine art we get bland, talentless, rubbish that can only hang it's hat on controversy or shock value. A fragment of mankind's soul has been lost today. And I'm not referring to religion.

    Really fantastic post.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,476 ✭✭✭coolshannagh28


    Strumms wrote: »
    Probably the best we can hope for, one would think that having seeing the footage that the whole interior would be gutted to a cinder.

    Gothic Cathedrals are finely balanced with their height supported by flying buttresses , I would imagine their are modern supports between the walls to maintain stability even if the stone vaults collapse so only a shell could be left but the wooden structures are replaceable as is the vaulting and the windows etc.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,649 ✭✭✭✭josip


    Is limestone that resistant to heat?
    The stonework was in fairly poor condition before the fire:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-43258266/notre-dame-cracks-in-the-cathedral

    I wouldn't be surprised if parts of it collapse as it cools or if it has to be partially demolished in the future.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,708 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    It's actually not the worst idea. If the firefighters can't get to the flames as it is due to the height, why not try aerial attack? What's the worst that'll happen, the roof collapses under the weight?

    The worst that'll happen is that the weight of the water crashing down on a weakened structure will cause the walls to explode outwards, destroying entirely the buildling that the firefighters are trying to save, probably killing several people in the vicinity and certainly causing massive damage to adjacent buildings ... and possibly also allowing the uncontained fire to now spread outwards beyond the no-longer present walls of the structure.

    So do you still want to try it? :rolleyes:


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,233 ✭✭✭MrMusician18


    conorhal wrote: »
    If the EU, who have spent all their time trying my last nerve lately, would like to do one thing that might put them back in my good graces, they could make it a European project to fund the full reconstruction of the cathedral.

    They blather on about a 'European Identity', well they're watching it burn to the ground and they should restore this iconic piece of European heritage, otherwise Notre Dame will forever be a symbol of the decline of western civilization.

    The way you say "they're watching it but to the ground" it's as if you think they're complicit in the cathedrals destruction.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,116 ✭✭✭Salty


    This is sickening to watch. I've never managed to get to Paris and have not had the privilege of experiencing Notre Dame in all of it's magnificence first hand.

    A devastating day for Parisians and for all the French.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,070 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn


    IMG-20190415-215917.jpg

    I saw this on twitter. Shocking. Hoped the fire was contained by now.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,564 ✭✭✭ahnowbrowncow


    Varta wrote: »
    Watching Notre Dame burning makes me feel so sad. It also makes me wonder if we are long past our zenith in terms of art and the creation of beautiful and lasting works. 850 years ago architects with pen and paper designed Notre Dame and builders without power tools built it. Yet today, with computer aided design and immense building power, all we get is glass boxes that will be lucky to last 50 years, never mind 850. While in fine art we get bland, talentless, rubbish that can only hang it's hat on controversy or shock value. A fragment of mankind's soul has been lost today. And I'm not referring to religion.


    I agree with you.

    But the bland practical buildings aren't too bad when you consider the human cost and profligacy involved in the making of those buildings and art.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 771 ✭✭✭HappyAsLarE


    Very sad news. Remember being in awe when taken there as a child.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 886 ✭✭✭Anteayer


    Strumms wrote: »
    Trump...He just should just shut the fûck up with his ameteur observations of fire fighting 5000 miles away and with no information, to think a free democracy elected the fûcking prîck, Jesus.

    He really needs to be reminded by the Mayor of Paris to keep raking America's forests.


  • Posts: 14,344 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The worst that'll happen is that the weight of the water crashing down on a weakened structure will cause the walls to explode outwards, destroying entirely the buildling that the firefighters are trying to save, probably killing several people in the vicinity and certainly causing massive damage to adjacent buildings ... and possibly also allowing the uncontained fire to now spread outwards beyond the no-longer present walls of the structure.

    So do you still want to try it? :rolleyes:


    Think you're being a tad dramatic there (albeit I enjoyed the dramatics of your post :D ). If water, even a sizeable amount of it, could knock the walls so easily, then a hard gust of wind would do the same.


    Water is generally dropped whilst the aircraft is still in motion. The water gets sprayed, not dropped downward directly.


  • Registered Users Posts: 85,210 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1


    Do we know the cause?

    Such an iconic historic building and I assume would have many celebrations planned for Easter holy week


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,708 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    I saw this on twitter. Shocking. Hoped the fire was contained by now.

    That is it contained. What you're seeing is all of the roof, the pews, the wooden wall panelling, etc., burning inside the stone walls. (Un)fortunately, French firefighters are very well trained in dealing with fires in historic buildings like this and know that our American Cousin's suggestion of blowing the bejayus out of it with bombs and rockets and whatnot is the kind of nonsense that should stay in Hollywood, or countries where they regularly bulldoze their history in the name of "progress".


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