Promises of reconstruction on the ashes of Notre Dame

It should be noted that the Attorney General of Paris, Rémy Heitz, announced this Tuesday the opening of an investigation for “involuntary destruction by fire”, which will begin with the statements of the workers of the 5 companies in charge of the rehabilitation works and the witnesses who witnessed the start of the fire. Heitz has also reported that at 6:20 p.m. on Monday, there was a first fire alarm, which underwent a procedure to verify its veracity and for which the presence of fire was not found. After a second alarm, at 6:43 p.m., the emergency services were able to corroborate the existence of a fire. At the national level, the reactions came with French President Emmanuel Macron, who traveled yesterday to the square that is located in front of the cathedral, located within the Île de la Cité, to closely follow the fire extinguishing work. On the spot, Macron delivered a speech, accompanied by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo and the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, in which he assured that “we knew how to build this cathedral, we made it grow and improve. We will all rebuild it together because it is part of the French destiny and it will be the project for the next few years […] because our history deserves it. ”To this end, a series of initiatives have already been launched: the first institution to react was Unesco, whose headquarters are located in Paris, which, through its general director, Audrey Azoulay – former French Minister of Culture – has committed “to safeguard and rehabilitate this inestimable heritage”.Yesterday afternoon, the National Heritage Foundation also announced that this next Tuesday a “national collection” will be launched to raise funds for the restoration of the cathedral. In his speech, Macron confirmed the opening of an “international collection”, proclaiming that it has been collected by the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, who has appealed to “the 28 [member] states to participate in this task.” The President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, has also urged MEPs to donate their salary today to contribute to the rehabilitation work. In total, the salaries of the 759 parliamentarians today could allow the collection of 225,300 euros – taking into account that a MEP earns close to 300 euros a day, which means a monthly salary of around 9,000 euros. de Paris (the City Council) has announced that it will unlock 50 million euros and the Région Île-de-France (the Community) another 10 million euros. In the private sphere, the Arnault family – headed by Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France – owner of the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group, has assured that it will donate 200 million euros and the Pinault family, owner of brands such as Saint Laurent, Gucci or Alexander McQueen, for his part, another 100 million euros.In the international sphere, the political leaders of friendly and neighboring nations of France, have also spoken and expressed their condolences for the disaster: Angela Merkel, Theresa May and the President of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, among others. In addition, it has been known that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has offered his French counterpart to send his best specialists to help with the restoration.In the surroundings of the cathedral, since last night, there have been cries, prayers, prayers and applause for the firefighters and emergency teams that have worked on the extinction, by the French and by the tourists, who even came to go to the perimeter delimited by the authorities to “say goodbye” to the temple. It should be remembered that Notre-Dame is the most visited monument in France, with 13 million people a year, followed by the Sacré-Coeur Basilica, the Louvre Museum and the Eiffel Tower. According to the French Minister of Culture, Frank Riester, the fire started from the place where the scaffolds are erected, more than 100 meters high, to recondition the central spire of the cathedral, built in wood and lined with lead. For this reason, the flames spread rapidly towards the needle itself, causing its collapse and spreading the fire towards the roof of the central nave that covered the vaults of Notre-Dame, known as “the forest”, due to the more than a thousand trees – especially oaks – that were used to raise the framework of beams that supported the cathedral. For the construction of the roof, which was structured in order to redirect the rainwater to the outside, it was made of wood and not stone, so as not to damage the columns and pillars that erect the temple with the weight. , the fire fell on the interior of the temple, although this took place in the last phase of the fire, when the firefighters were already working on the extinguishing tasks, so the damage in this area is not as serious as in the Exterior.Similarly, there was a moment throughout the night when flames reached the north tower of Notre-Dame, one of the two towers that make up the main facade. In those moments, there was fear for the stability of the entire building, because if the fire reached the bell, the tower could have collapsed, with the tragic consequences that it would have had on the rest of the construction. In fact, the commander of the Paris Fire Brigade, General Gallet, even reported that the fire brigade “is not sure of being able to stop the spread of the fire”, since they had not been able to use the tanker aircraft, since that any launching of water from above would have endangered the stability of the infrastructure. Damages Although the Secretary of State of the Ministry of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, already confirmed this Monday night that “the structure [stone] of the building is safe and preserved in its entirety ”, this Tuesday announced that incalculable damages have been registered and that, in addition, some vulnerabilities have been identified, especially at the vault level. For this reason, work is now focused on securing the interior for the next 48 hours. Along these lines, the head of the French Culture portfolio, Frank Riester, explained that the fire destroyed two-thirds of the roof, firstly the central spire of Notre-Dame, built on the midpoint of the transept towards the year 1,250. ‘The arrow’ (‘La flèche’), as the French traditionally know it, had a height of 93 meters from the ground and had been made with 500 tons of wood, lined by 250 tons of lead.The top of the spire was crowned by a rooster, a French symbol, and inside, three relics were kept: a part of the Holy Crown of Thorns, a relic of Saint Denis and a relic of Saint Geneviève. the collapse of the roof allowed the flames to spread into the temple, prompting the fire department to use water to extinguish the fire. This has damaged the main canvases that decorated the walls of the cathedral, which is why the work of transferring the works to the Hôtel de Ville (the seat of the City Council) for their subsequent restoration has already begun. Thirdly, the rehabilitation works that were taking place in the cathedral – with a budget of 6 million euros and whose duration was scheduled until 2022 – have been completely affected. Thus, the president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF, for its acronym in French), has declared that, now, “it will take years of work” to rebuild the temple. However, there is also good news. The facade of the cathedral, with its two characteristic towers, and the stone structure have been saved and preserved in their entirety. In the same way, the dean of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Monsignor Chauvet has confirmed tonight that the Holy Crown of Thorns and the tunic of Saint Louis, two of the most important relics that the cathedral housed in its museum –’El treasure’– located on the ground floor, they have been rescued.In addition, part of the furniture such as armchairs, chandeliers and benches, as well as other works of art such as canvases and sculptures have been saved and transferred to the Hôtel de Ville thanks “to the human chain” formed by the firefighters, as published by Anne Hidalgo Likewise, the statues of the 12 apostles and the 4 evangelists who “guarded” the needle have survived, as they had been removed 5 days before the fire for their transfer to the French department of Dordogne, where they will be rehabilitated during the next 6 months.