Notre Dame Cathedral is burning to the ground!

[huub vink]

Dave, the French didn't and I'm convinced it was the best decision. I have fought fires half of my life and I have learned never to trust the construction of a building which is or was on fire. I have lost several colleagues who did forget this for a just a single moment.

This was the official French explanation:

"The weight of the water and the intensity of the drop at low altitude could indeed weaken the structure of Notre-Dame and result in collateral damage to the buildings in the vicinity," tweeted the agency, which is part of the French Ministry of Interior."

Cheers,
Huub

 

[n4gix]

trust me i dont like anything that the orange idiot says or does,but he wasnt wrong on his "idea",done right by experienced pilots,drops would have knocked alot of heat out of the fire.one other point,helicopters in a case like that,a helo would have not hovered to drop,it would keep moving forward.

It's the sheer chutzpah of someone totally unqualified to offer unsolicited advice on "how to ..." that's galling Dave.

BTW, are your neighbors out raking the forests in California?

 

[Daveroo]

It's the sheer chutzpah of someone totally unqualified to offer unsolicited advice on "how to ..." that's galling Dave.

BTW, are your neighbors out raking the forests in California?

well they better be,but i aint worried no mo about them hills,,im going to buy (in the process now) a boat and live on the Sacramento/San Joaquin delta.

 

[wombat666]

And let's keep any form of 'Politics' firmly locked away people.
Huub is right, water bombing on a building that is 850 years old, a combination of masonry and timber construction, in the heart of a densely populated metroplis is just a bad idea.
Despite the 'Notre Dame is burning to the ground' headline it wasn't and didn't, through the expertise and courage of le pompiers it appears that a large part of the relics and associated treasure has been saved.
Even the stained glass windows appear to have been saved.
Out-bloody-standing!


Reminder: NO POLITICS!

 

[Daveroo]

my comments about it were the fact it could be done and done effectively,whether it was this building or a grass hut in a jungle somewhere doesnt mater.and disliking the orange idiot isnt political,i disliked him a long long time ago.hes a horrible corrupt man,president of the USA or not.

 

[gman5250]

Back on point....

The only person responsible for this tragedy knows who they are, or possibly it was an industrial accident. Fact of the matter here is that the timber and architectural sculpture was ancient by any standards and tinder dry. The resulting firestorm destroyed (part of) an architectural icon that is utterly irreplaceable. The structure can be rebuilt, but that ancient forest no longer exists, which makes it impossible to simply replace the original. The re-built structure will be a pale replica.

For me, this is a tragedy that transcends people, ideologies or political biases. If and when the facts regarding this incident are revealed we can deal with our sense of loss in our own personal ways.

Daveroo...I love you bro, but ease up man. Tensions are high as it is, no need to provoke another firestorm.

 

[Josh Patterson]

And let's keep any form of 'Politics' firmly locked away people.
Huub is right, water bombing on a building that is 850 years old, a combination of masonry and timber construction, in the heart of a densely populated metroplis is just a bad idea.
Despite the 'Notre Dame is burning to the ground' headline it wasn't and didn't, through the expertise and courage of le pompiers it appears that a large part of the relics and associated treasure has been saved.
Even the stained glass windows appear to have been saved.
Out-bloody-standing!


Reminder: NO POLITICS!

Yes. It looks like the only parts of the interior of the cathedral that were burned were where the sections of vaulted ceiling failed (like the section the spire caved in when it fell) allowing embers to fall to the floor. Video from a drone today showed that where most of the roof fell it was retained above the intact sections of the ceiling. All things considered the interior looks remarkably good with even sections of pews intact. Finding old growth forest to replace the roof will be a trick though. I read some of the trees it was built from were 3-400 years old. It will be interesting to see what things really look like once the debris is removed and things start to get cleaned up.

 

[wombat666]

We are flying to France on the 20th for the Villers-Bretonneux ANZAC service on the 25th, so naturally Paris is on our schedule.
I'll drive to Villers-Bretonneux straight from CDG (weather forecast for the 25th........cold to freezing!) and return to Paris as things at Notre Dame will be clearer several days on.
'Madame Wombat' has a French father and an Italian mother, a 'Parisian' when in France and a 'Roman' in Italy, so naturally Notre Dame is embedded in her heritage.
Nothing to do with religion (we don't 'do' religion FWIW), more to do with the Cathedral having been a focal point of Paris for centuries.

'C'est la vie'.

 

[MrZippy]

We are flying to France on the 20th for the Villers-Bretonneux ANZAC service on the 25th, so naturally Paris is on our schedule.
I'll drive to Villers-Bretonneux straight from CDG (weather forecast for the 25th........cold to freezing!) and return to Paris as things at Notre Dame will be clearer several days on.
'Madame Wombat' has a French father and an Italian mother, a 'Parisian' when in France and a 'Roman' in Italy, so naturally Notre Dame is embedded in her heritage.
Nothing to do with religion (we don't 'do' religion FWIW), more to do with the Cathedral having been a focal point of Paris for centuries.

'C'est la vie'.

Sounds like fun! If you need a luggage-monkey, I'm available