PARIS — With its iconic cathedral scorched but still standing, France on Tuesday was contending with the aftermath of a fire that gutted a symbol of the nation, and which authorities said had probably started by accident.
The fire was contained and smoke had cleared from the sky as French officials launched an investigation into what triggered the Notre Dame inferno and an assessment of whether the stone facade of the church remained structurally strong.
From certain angles on Tuesday, it was almost possible to look head-on at the church — see its two rectangular bell towers and carved statues — and imagine that all was intact. Much of the valued art and relics had been saved. Even the exquisite stained glass windows remained in place, seemingly immune to the previous day’s flames.
But that belied the somber accounting of all that had been lost, and how the religious and architectural landmark at Paris’s center had been altered. The church’s trademark steeple, part of the Parisian skyline since the mid-1800s, had been swallowed in the flames. Char and smoke marks licked portions of the walls. And the roof — constructed with centuries-old wood — had been destroyed like tinder, leaving gaping holes that let sunlight shine into the cathedral Tuesday.
Officials warned that Notre Dame may still have gravely dangerous vulnerabilities, especially in the soaring vault. But a few government officials ventured inside, and camera footage showed charred rubble in front of the still-intact pews.
In an evening address to the nation, French President Emmanuel Macron described the firefighters as heroic, and said the country would reconstruct Notre Dame within five years.
“We now have to get things done,” Macron said. “We will act, and we will succeed.”
From around the world, donations poured in for reconstruction, and both Parisians and tourists lined the Seine, bearing witness at bridges where police cut off access to the site.
[The fall of Notre Dame is a body blow to Paris and all it represents]
Castaner said more than 500 firefighters had been mobilized Monday to help extinguish flames that had left city skyline cloaked in smoke. But questions remained about whether there had been initial warning signs.
Paris Prosecutor Rémy Heitz laid out a timeline in which a first alarm went off at 6:20 p.m., but no signs of fire were initially found. Only when a second alarm went off — 23 minutes later — was fire detected.
“In the meantime, the church was evacuated because a Mass just started a bit earlier,” Heitz said.
Later, a spokesman for the Paris prosecutor said it was church staffers, not fire fighters, who looked into the initial warning.
Buildings like Notre Dame — full of hidden nooks and passages, composed of timber and old materials — are seen as particularly risky by fire prevention experts, especially when they are under renovation. Stewart Kidd, a consultant on so-called heritage buildings in Britain, said that in old structures, by the time flames become visible, “they may have been burning for an hour” in unseen spaces.
And when there is construction, Kidd said, “the building is exposed to all sorts of dangerous activity.”
Officials said they do not suspect foul play, and Heitz said were no indications that the blaze was started deliberately. Officials plan to interview people from the five companies that were doing renovation work at the site. Before the fire, part of the Gothic structure had been encased in scaffolding.
French police block access to the Île de la Cité and the cathedral on Pont Saint-Louis. (Cyril Zannettacci/Agence VU for The Washington Post)
The area near Notre Dame is still closed to the public as rescue efforts are underway at the partly destroyed monument. (Cyril Zannettacci/Agence VU for The Washington Post)
The cathedral was built over centuries, starting in 1163. It was partially consumed in just hours Monday, as thousands of Parisians stood sentinel, singing “Ave Maria” and weeping at the sight.
“Parisians lose their lady,” read one French headline. In Strasbourg, the city’s great cathedral tolled its bell for 15 minutes Tuesday morning in solidarity.
Speaking on French radio early Tuesday, Culture Minister Franck Riester said many significant works of art in the cathedral had been saved. Notre Dame’s organ had survived the flames — whether it had suffered water damage was still to be determined. Riester also confirmed reports that firefighters had been able to save the church’s two most hallowed relics: the crown of thorns Jesus is said to have worn and a tunic worn by Saint Louis, a 13th-century French king.
The objects would be transferred from Paris City Hall to the Louvre, Riester said.
[As flames engulfed Notre Dame, a fire brigade chaplain helped save the treasures inside]
“It was necessary to bring them out through the smoke,” Paris Fire Commander Jean-Claude Gallet told BFMTV. He said firefighters rushed into the chamber of the cathedral at the height of the fire to make the rescue.
The cathedral’s most precious stained-glass rose windows, an ensemble that dates to the 12th and 13th centuries, are also likely intact, said André Finot, a cathedral spokesman.
“It’s a bit of a miracle. We’re very relieved,” he told BFMTV.
Vittorio Sgarbi, a Rome-based art historian, said that Notre Dame, even before the fire, had been an architectural mish-mash — some parts original, but many parts added or replaced.
“This is going to be a fateful event in the story of a non-authentic building, a sort of laboratory,” Sgarbi said.
Even as the fire still burned, France was making plans to reconstruct the church. Experts predicted that reconstruction could take a decade or more — in contrast to Macron’s goal of five years.
[Macron promises to rebuild Notre Dame, but Paris monument suffers ‘colossal damage’]
The effort was supported by Pope Francis, who on Tuesday called the fire a “catastrophe” and described on Twitter a desire that the damage would be “transformed into hope with reconstruction.”
From around the world, money poured in for reconstruction. Some donors said the outpouring showed the importance of a building that had become emblematic of faith, art and of France itself.
On Tuesday morning, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo floated the idea of an “international donor’s conference” that would unite philanthropists and restoration experts in Paris to raise money for targeted purposes in rebuilding Notre Dame.
French luxury magnate François-Henri Pinault declared that his family would dedicate about $113 million to the effort. Hours later, the family of Bernard Arnault, chief executive of the LVMH luxury conglomerate and the richest man in Europe, pledged a gift of $226 million. By Thursday evening in Paris, private pledges had topped $700 million.
Several French people who had started smaller crowdfunding campaigns described on Tuesday being moved by the gestures.
“I am not religious myself; I’m an atheist,” said Charles Gosse, 23, a business school student who launched an online funding campaign and quickly raised $27,000. “But this is beyond religion. It is a national monument like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.”
People look at the rescue efforts still underway at Notre-Dame near a store named “The Gifts of Notre-Dame” in the center of Paris. (Cyril Zannettacci / Agence VU for The Washington Post)
France, though officially secular, remains a Catholic nation, and many of the people who came to see the remnants on Tuesday said they were prompted by their faith. This is the holiest week of the year on the Christian calendar.
“I’m a believer,” said Carine Mazzoni, 48, a lawyer who said her son was confirmed at Notre Dame. “It’s Easter week. It’s a symbol of Paris and a Catholic symbol. It’s the history of the world that’s united in this building.”
Longtime city residents said they had a hard time comprehending the destruction.
“I’ve been a Parisian for 62 years,” said city-native Alix Constant, a medical secretary. “When I saw the images of the fire, I had the need to see it with my own eyes. And even more so because I’m a practicing Catholic.”
There were no deaths, but two police officers and one firefighter were injured, officials said.
[How Notre Dame inspired Henri Matisse, who depicted the cathedral as a living memory]
In their account of the fire and rescue effort, firefighters told local media that after the first call came in, they had to get through rush-hour traffic clogging the banks of the Seine.
The flames quickly spread from the top level of the nave, eating up one beam, then another, in a vast portion of the roof that has been called “the forest” because each massive support was carved from an entire tree. The 750-ton spire, which was originally constructed in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 19th out of oak covered with lead, toppled shortly before 8 p.m.
At the height of the effort to combat the blaze, which raged for about nine hours, firefighters trained 18 hoses on the church, according to local media accounts. They pumped water straight from the Seine, the grand river that traverses Paris and closely abuts Notre Dame.
People gather near Notre-Dame the day after a massive fire destroyed part of the monument. (Cyril Zannettacci / Agence VU for The Washington Post)
Birnbaum reported from Brussels. Reis Thebault in Washington, Griff Witte in Berlin, Stefano Pitrelli in Rome and Quentin Ariès in Paris contributed to this report.
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