Notre Dame cathedral is on fire!

[ithinkmycatistryingtokillme]

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

"His cathedral was enough for him. It was peopled with marble figures of kings, saints and bishops who at least did not laugh in his face and looked at him with only tranquillity and benevolence. The other statues, those of monsters and demons, had no hatred for him – he resembled them too closely for that. It was rather the rest of mankind that they jeered at. The saints were his friends and blessed him; the monsters were his friends and kept watch over him. He would sometimes spend whole hours crouched before one of the statues in solitary conversation with it." V Hugo

This is genuinely heartbreaking.

Feel lucky to have been to Paris many times and our kids have been there at least 6 times.

I have said to them, 'remember all the times we went to Notre Dame...'

They have both said 'no'.

Devastating. I have been to Note Dame many times, but my children have never been. Every time we have taken them to Paris we have skipped going inside thinking there is always the next time Very very sad tonight.

Am in tears. Just dreadful

Utterly devastating to watch .

Such a truly beautiful place. I have the fondest memories of it.

It makes everything seem so fragile.

The smallest of mercies is no one was hurt. I hope the firefighters all keep safe .

This is dreadful!

What the hell was somebody doing in those renovations to cause such a big fire?! Surely they need to be so careful in these types of buildings.

Made me think of "Pillars of the Earth" too

Now the bell tower is on fire. This is so, so awful.
Those firefighters deserve nothing but the utmost praise.

The thing is, the timber in these buildings is centuries old. It is literally tinder dry. There is no 100% surefire way to keep the structure safe from fire as it is repaired. All it takes is a spark. That nobody notices.

@Fjfs the blue glass in the rose window is considered the finest in the world and is made from an unknown recipe as well as other examples ofvery fine lead lighting. It contains many equisite works pfvreligious art. Obviously there are people buried in there. It is particularly famed for its individualistic and finely carved gargoyles. It was really lovely even despite all the tourists.

It's utterly tragic. Evidently a severe fire that can't be control.

Quite overwhelming; the loss of history and beauty and symbolism, along with the fear for the brave men and women fighting it and the surrounding area.

😭

But then surely there should always be two to each individual tool used: one to operate, and one to watch for sparks, if it really is the case that they are so highly flammable. How can there be less for such highly important structures?

So sad such a beautiful, historical building

Mama1980 - thank you for that quote. Beautiful.

This is unbelievable. So sad. Art is supposed to stay. How can it be gone, just like that.

I have been, and agree with others that, like St Peter's, you get inside and forget all the trite comments about religion. I remember my friend gasping and saying "now I understand why people have religion"

I have been up on the roofs on some catherdrals and there are usually quite a few fire hydrants up there and hose reels but it look like here this took off faster then they could get up there and perhaps thats the reason why its not being controlled better or quicker then might be the case.

It does seem to have gone up very fast indeed i bet someone somewhere is going the come in for quite a bit of stick on that issue.

But the building ios in a poor state anyway there is a video clip on the BBC website shjowing the way its bene patched up all over sad to say that these buildiongs of that age do need a lot of repair and replacement work anyway.

The spire is down. This is awful. I've never cried over a building before but this is tragic.

The archbishop of Paris has called on all churches to ring their bells for Notre Dame

I've seen somewhere that the possibility of arson hasn't been ruled out.

I remember seeing the Notre Dame on a French exchange visit nearly 40 years ago. Not religious but the works of art and the workmanship of the cathedral itself were fascinating.

Ken Follett is talking about Notre Dame on Sky News now.

The archbishop of Paris has called on all churches to ring their bells for Notre Dame

What a lovely, lovely gesture. I think all churches here should do the same.

I feel so sad about this. It's not just that I'm Catholic, it's the age, the history the beauty of it that I'm almost in tears about.

I really hope there are no casualties either.

The roof ... All that lovely, old, well-seasoned wood

Yes

I'm still confused about how it broke out so high in the tower though - especially as the lower sections don't appear to be affected

My heart goes out to the French people and all those who love this beautiful church.

I used to live in Paris and loved walking round this area.

So so sad, but I think it will be found to have been caused by some aspect of the restoration. There are plenty of examples where careless use of a heat source has resulted in fires at historic buildings.

Let's hope no one has been hurt.