Notre Dame

[Cheshirechappie]

Ouch - that's not good.

At time of posting, the fire is under control, but not extinguished. Huge amounts of work to do cleaning up, and assessing the structure to see what needs doing to stabilise it. Cause of fire not yet known, but arson is though unlikely.

On the positive side, I've seen second hand reports that many of the priceless artifacts in the building - illuminated manuscripts, tapestries and so on, were moved out before the fire really took hold. Hope that's true, and not too much was destroyed.

It's one of many symbols of Western civilisation, folks. It matters.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

A sad business.

I expect the price of oak to go (further) up over the next few years...

 

[OscarG]

Mishap with Boiled linseed oil?

 

[shed9]

Mishap with Boiled linseed oil?

:?:

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Quite possibly something to do with leadwork - there was a lot of scaffolding around the roof - either linseed (in patination oil), or the side effects of an oxy-acetylene torch. You'd expect work like this to be very tightly controlled, but I suppose it only takes one mistake.

A smaller-scale example - the item mentions "finishing touches" - e.g. applying patination oil:
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/uppark ... -at-uppark

 

[OscarG]

Mishap with Boiled linseed oil?

:?:

Well there was talks of refurbishment work going on, I wondered if maybe someone left a balled up rag of BLO and it self-combusted etc.

 

[shed9]

Mishap with Boiled linseed oil?

:?:

Well there was talks of refurbishment work going on, I wondered if maybe someone left a balled up rag of BLO and it self-combusted etc.

Ahh, didn't know if some details were leaking out as I hadn't seen any as yet. Not sure they will find anything forensic after that intense heat.

 

[Rorschach]

Wonder what the French have done to annoy god?

 

[lurker]

There is an interesting article in the times quoting a French historian who is a expert on the cathedral and he is damning French bureaucracy for doing the renovations on the cheap.

We moan about health and safety, but hot works procedures work, trouble is until you get a fire no one appreciates this.

 

[lurker]

Wonder what the French have done to annoy god?

Well, Macron was rather rude to Mrs May last week.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

A sad business.

I expect the price of oak to go (further) up over the next few years...

The French do have a good reputation for forestry management, and growing some long, straight boles. I suppose any French forester speculatively growing spire-shaped trees is about to cash in.

They wouldn't use MDF to keep the costs down, would they?

 

[doctor Bob]

Terrible shame, I reckon that is a 20 year project.

 

[Ali]

Awful tragedy really, will never be the same. Hope they are able to rebuild the best they can

 

[shed9]

I appreciate this is literally the day after and I'm seriously not trying to be facetious but imagine the regeneration in new and old skills this will generate over the next few decades, not to mentions jobs.
I appreciate there will be many assessments over the next year/s but I suspect there will be sufficiently enough of the old building to integrate to the new. This could end up being turned around in the near future from the tragedy it is right now.

As I understand it no lives were lost which is stunning giving the fire started with people in there and the sheer number of emergency responders.

 

[Mr_Pea]

Looks like fund raising isn't going to be an issue and thanks to recent 3d scans it could be re-built almost perfectly.

So it will come down to time pressures (13 million visitors a year) and availability and numbers of skilled craftspeople.

 

[Chris152]

imagine the regeneration in new and old skills this will generate over the next few decades

I had BBC Breakfast on this morning and heard part of a discussion about the methods of rebuilding, loss of medieval craft skills and so on. The bloke who was being interviewed suggested that any block-work that would need re-making would be cut by robots. It could be really interesting to follow the build, I'd think. As you say, from such a great tragedy, good things could come.

 

[treeturner123]

Hi All

Don't forget we've had our fire related problems, though not as great but:-

York Minster
Uppark House - NT, set fire by a lead worker
Windsor Castle
Hampton Court - only a small part

Yes in all cases it helped with re-inventing old skills, so we have the people!!!

Phil

 

[bourbon]

Linford's of Lichfield helped on York minster. Sadly gone bust now, Crofts should quote for it! I would imagine that anyone who does, must be able to speak French!

 

[Trevanion]

I put in my quote for it this afternoon, I think I might've quoted it too cheap though at £500m. A couple of boys and a biggish step ladder and it shouldn't take too long.

It would be interesting to see how long it will take to rebuild it VS how long it took to build completely.

 

[flying haggis]

and cost comparisons