Notre Dame cathedral is on fire!

[ithinkmycatistryingtokillme]

It's breaking on bbc news, from the pictures it's a major blaze!

they don't appear to have any significant fire fighting capacity.
This is inexact, to be polite.
Several hundred firefighters have been deployed. Notre Dame is very hard to access, the surrounding streets are narrow and crowded and there is huge danger all around. Trump thinks you can throw tons of water and solve the problem: you risk damaging remaining structures as well as surrounding buildings, and killing those all around. The pilot of a Canadair who chooses to release his water is liable for any damage caused.

It feels as though there is something terribly symbolic of our times in seeing something so beautiful and ancient going up in flames so easily.

A real shame, awful to see such an old, historical building like that destroyed.

This is so terribly sad.

Looks like the fire is in the towers now :(

Hard to believe that much devastation can happen in little more than an hour.

I'd be astonished if it's only been burning an hour.

I'm sure the MN firefighters (really, there are some!) will be able to say better, but IIRC from other cases, if a fire starts in timber in a secluded place it can spread at a low intensity, charring and flickering, over a number of hours and no one's any the wiser until suddenly it bursts out somewhere visible or something collapses. By that point, the spread is already substantial.

So if this one started in the roof space, for example, it could have been taking hold over many hours.

Would that scaffolding be likely to collapse with the heat / flames ?

Two hundred years to build. Standing for eight hundred I think? Gone in a couple of hours. The fragility of things. So shocking. My heart goes to all Parisians tonight.

twitter.com/GreggFavre/status/1117847726786371585
Thread by a firefighter on the Notre Dame fire.

He doesn't think there will be much left.

Unbelievable. I used to work for a famous historic landmark and there were salvage / disaster plans of what certain employees would be responsible for trying to grab as they fled a burning building, and what monuments would be sandbagged. But in this case it's probably gone beyond hope. Awful. I really feel most for those poor people who look after the place every day. Heartbreaking.

to all French MNers, and to all of us who've loved this building.

Heartbreaking.

I am so, so upset. Notre Dame has withstood so much, it is so beautiful. My heart is a little bit broken I think

What a beautiful building, such a shame! Will any of the stained glass windows survive?

We visited a few years ago, but I sat outside as I didn't feel very well. Looks like I'll never get another chance now.

My heart is breaking, I cannot watch.

I think some windows have already gone Midsomer

if this one started in the roof space, for example, it could have been taking hold over many hours

You're right, that makes sense ... still very worried that the fire around the chancel end doesn't seem to be reducing more quickly though

Some windows have melted

Fwiw, in contradiction to pps saying that Paris doesn’t have good firefighting capabilities - that Twitter firefighter says:

One thing that #NotreDame has in its favor -
@PompiersParis
are world class firefighters.

I saw their work when I served on a board for the
@IAFC
& they have as strong, dedicated and skilled responders as you'd find anywhere in the world.

And my thoughts are w/ them all today

They've MELTED?

this is so utterly sad. I'm in tears at the loss. I could not watch the pictures of the spire collapsing.

Poor, poor Paris.

BBC saying fire in the towers :(

It's devastating. I'm so glad I got to see it. It was magical