BREAKING: Paris landmark, Notre Dame Cathedral, is on fire!

Orionaut said:
Actually we did, rather more than today really.

That is what Royal Forests were for. Trees were deliberately planted and protected so that in, say, 200 years time, there would be timber available to build Ships/buildings with. People in the past had far longer horizons than people today.
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Not really, royal forests were places for the rich and royals to hunt animals.
 
200sols said:
Not really, royal forests were places for the rich and royals to hunt animals.
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Royal forests served multiple roles. Timber for future large construction projects and ship building was a very important one. Commoners could use them for collecting firewood but were generally not permitted to randomly fell trees (IE You could collect fallen branches but not cut any down)
 
Firestar_3x said:
Macron wants the international community to cough up cash to help rebuild it.

I wonder how much the French government is going to fund, or should i say how much he can fund without further mass protests about fuel.
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It's fine he will just get the EU to pay for it, all the while imposing heavy economic stress on struggling countries within the doctrine.

But your right there is going to be more protests for sure, He really is a class clown.
 
Amazed you are turning this into an eco warrior issue. 20Hectares is nothing.
The 13th century was way before the industrial Revolution that vastly stripped out forests.
Population was tiny back then.
I just don't get your angles.
Do you think it's less polluting environment damaging to build a steel brick and glass structure of that size?
Apologies if I totally got the wrong end of the sticks
 
Billionaire François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of the Kering group that owns the Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent fashion brands, pledged €100m.

Bernard Arnault's family and their company LVMH - a business empire which includes Louis Vuitton and Sephora, pledged €200m.
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I wonder how much money these people have saved over the years by means of "creative" tax avoidance schemes?
 
Orionaut said:
Its not just any old trees either. It has to be trees of just the right shape. The "Wastage" that would have occurred when building these huge structures must have been immense (EG a whole tree felled to get hold of a single limb that is just the right shape to create a particular joist or support)
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? what happened to all the carpenters?
 
I see the usual idiots are out in force on Social Media saying that after surviving 800 years its now destroyed because French allowed Muslims into Paris.
 
Greebo said:
I see the usual idiots are out in force on Social Media saying that after surviving 800 years its now destroyed because French allowed Muslims into Paris.
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In all seriousness, I wonder what security checks were made on the people employed by the building contractors engaged in the restoration works?
 
I think of Notre-dame and then victor hugo and quasimodo come to mind, good to hear no human fatalities, although I do find most cathedrals quite ugly on the landscape.
 
Most of Northern Europe was forested back in the 12th century. Royal forests were hunting grounds owned by the crown, any land owned by a local Baron had restricted rights on who could cut wood or take rabbits, deer, boar, wild birds etc. When Nantwich burned in the 16th century Elizabeth 1 gave the town a £1000 and trees for the rebuilding.
 
Greebo said:
I see the usual idiots are out in force on Social Media saying that after surviving 800 years its now destroyed because French allowed Muslims into Paris.
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The thing is nobody knows at the moment!

Reports of someone walking around when they claimed no construction workers were on scene during the far, hence picture
Reports of an electrical fault
Rumours of Arson
Construction worker caused the fire as an accident
 
Can't we rebuild it using a modern, less combustable material that is made to look like oak or has some sort of oak cladding to give the right look? Seems like too good of an opportunity not to future-proof it against fires in the future... the stone structure has proved itself to be pretty resilient so if the roof wouldn't burn either it would be a lot safer from fires?

This whole thing reminded me of when the Royal Clarence Hotel in Exeter burned down a couple of years ago - really similar circumstances, another very old historical building lost (not as significant as Notre Dame obviously but still)... although it was some sort of building works in a nearby building that caused the fire (typical sort of thing, hot-works not turned off properly or similar)... The big problem though was that the hotel is by the Cathedral in Exeter at the top of a hill quite far away from the River, so after a few hours of attempting to fight the blaze the mains water in the city was pretty much gone (all restaurants etc. had to stop working due to no water)... the fire service had to lay massive pipes right the way down the high street to connect them straight into the river and they shut-down roads in the town centre and filled these massive inflatable tanks with water from this to provide a buffer for the hoses to feed from... Not much of the building survived but they're well underway rebuilding it now and as above they're intending to modernise the structural aspects of the building whilst keeping the facade a faithful reproduction of the original...
 
Greebo said:
I see the usual idiots are out in force on Social Media saying that after surviving 800 years its now destroyed because French allowed Muslims into Paris.
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Unsurprisingly, there were posts on a U.S. forum I subscribe to, saying that the Paris firefighters were considering surrendering as a valid option.
 
I agree with reconstructing it but with a modern twist. We are very unlikely to be able to rebuild it as it was. So perhaps try to build it similar but with modern touches including both materials and designs. There are historic buildings which we know have been repaired and rebuilt during their lifetimes and those changes are part of their history now. If we can rebuild it so it can last another 800 years then surely that would be a positive outcome from something so tragic.

The person spotted in the building could have been a security guard or anyone else working there. I doubt the building is ever completely empty of staff. If that person was actually the arsonist then I would have expected them to leave immediately rather than hang around for half an hour and risk being caught.
 
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