seventy seven percent this weekend on d w. this is d w news live from berlin tonight is a nation in shock fire has engulfed the cathedral notre dame in paris authorities say there may be no stopping the blaze the flames have consumed the church's fire and have spread to the building's iconic built towers president is at the scene a part of all of us he said we'll go live to paris for the latest d.w.

news starts right now. it's good to have you with us notre dame cathedral in paris is burning tonight a devastating fire that started early this evening is still raging out of control officials say they're not sure the blaze can be contained the delegates are at the center of the roof and the roof itself have collapsed into the nave of the twelfth century gothic church the fire has also spread to at least one of the cathedrals to great towers but a few minutes ago officials expressed optimism that the building itself. one firefighter has been seriously hurt well that's the latest information from president emanuel saying the blaze was taking

a part of all of france's people. with. well what an evening it has been my colleague wheel of blue cross is here with me you're following a very special what's being said. but let's talk about this report that they may be able to save the building right just i mean about an hour or two ago we have the foreign ministry in france saying they weren't sure they weren't certain there's no way to tell if they'd be able to save these towers it did appear from the images that the firefighters are trying to contain the fire away from the towers into where the roof had collapsed now they're saying they maybe have some optimism they may be able to save these towers after all in the meantime it appears that one firefighter has been seriously injured which is also a new development new development we have new details how we do know that the firefighters one of their priorities was to save the invaluable artwork and relics

that are in the building so it is possible that in the course of doing that of course that's a hugely dangerous thing to undertake in the middle of a massive and you know structural fire that we're seeing today stand by i want to pull into our correspondent barbara visuals she is in paris. not very far actually from their role barbara can you hear me. yes i hear you ok barbara tell me give me the latest what are you seeing tell me you know how far away are you actually from the cathedral. we're not very far away we are on the on the edge of the louis which is the neighboring island. is on and if we look to the back of can see. like the outline of the huge dark building in the back and then the reddish shine this is the fire coming still from the roof at the moment it appears that the two towers are not actively burning

to the left inside the white to sort of further shine that you see that's the war true that the fire fighters are constantly pouring into the cathedral and the reddish shine there is there is really flames to be seen coming out of the middle of the vault in the middle of the of the church building really so it is still actively burning very strongly there and from what we hear it is not quite certain where the building can be structurally saved at least the the sort of main walls off it can be saved or whether there will be a breakdown later it's very hard to say because the fire is burning and it is also in other parts of the building really smoldering because it did start in the in the woodwork off the roof and there are some beams there that date back to the

thirteenth century hugely drive beams and so that means that there is just constant there was for hours like constant nourishment for the flames and one of the main problems here for the firefighters trying to save this building is that the fire hoses are simply not long enough they don't really reach this sort of have to throw water up against the body of the kid seadrill hoping to cool it down and so contain the fire and then many questions were put here by who reasons on the scene why can they not sort of come with the firefighting planes and the answer to that of all the experts here is that would really endangered the building and probably call. you know we're having problems with that signal no let's just pick up though and what we're hearing there from barbara the fire officials they are very careful in

that they're saying it publicly that we could actually do more damage than good if we go in treat this just like a house fire just to finish off barbara sentence there think what she's about to say was that if you just fly a plane over there which we've seen a lot of forest fires right the force of that fire extinguishing falling down of the plane would probably do more damage to the structure of the fire itself i can only imagine that that would be the case so i think don't see the end as end where of course a crowded urban area in the middle of the city. it's unsure how that would even even work so it is interesting it is interesting though she said that the didn't have fire hoses that were long enough to reach to get the drill in you would think that there would even maybe be a special brigade for. dealing with i mean if you like firefighters that there is a science to fighting fires which which you and i are certainly not privy to and there is a way of doing this they do not the word what they're doing or member of the this

is a massive structure that's why it's so famous i mean french gothic architecture is meant to wow you and anyone who's been to notre dame and knows how it is i mean the spire was ninety meters tall those towers are sixty nine meters tall a fire truck is only going to be able to do so much a fire has only been able to do so much and a fire burning that hot can only be so much to be done to remain no and stand by we have a report you know with images the latest images from the fire. the heart rending sight as the spire found striking at a symbol of french culture in the heart of paris. the massive blaze spread on words collapsing the roof and setting the wooden frame of the entire cathedral aflame. the alarm went off shortly before seven in the evening local time no saddam is burning spreading a brown black cloud across the sky her reasons and tourists looked on and

heartbreak kept outside the security perimeter by authorities as ash fell in the vicinity. firefighters had a seemingly impossible task they had to work inside the building to save priceless artworks and outside to contain the blaze as it engulfed the roof now saddam is one of the world's most famous churches holding cultural treasures from nearly a thousand years of french and catholic history. the inferno brought french president emanuel mccrone to the scene he had been scheduled to give an address to the nation. he tweeted that the fire awoke the emotion of the entire nation and that the cathedral was a part of all french people it's still unclear what started the blaze there's been no word about arson or foul play the fire may have started in connection with renovation work on the roof scaffolding could be seen around much of the church and

just a few days ago statues were removed from the upper spire they at least will survive the flames but that's little consolation as the blaze burns on into the night having already done incalculable damage. i mean we see those images there that we're dealing with a massive blaze here i mean i mean what's a fire who's going to do what i mean it's you can only feel for these firefighters you know looking at those images it looks so pathetic what they're able to do although these are high power fire hoses and yet still what's it going to do with a fire burning this this hot i mean there's so much material in that church seven eight hundred years of material that is all able to burn and all been built in different ways it's a huge challenge for the people who have been doing the renovation for engineers i mean how do you maintain a building like this that's so that's so very old and then you have all the construction equipment from put into it the scaffolding all of this is just right

for a fire to catch on and add to the fuel so it's really a huge herculean task that they have in front of them let's go back now to barbara who is in paris she's notre dame its lead role barbara we could hear the sirens in the background there we were speaking with you talk to me a little bit about what's happening around notre dame and just the the feeling tonight in paris i mean this this is a trauma a shock all of us have settled it but we can only imagine what it must be like were you war. this is really for france and the french and particularly the peri's ins of course you sort of tick event because this is the symbol this is the heart of their city this is the heart of old paris it's not only the millions of tourists who come to visit this place every year but it is really for their reasons and for

france generally this is sort of this symbol off the history of their shared culture off more than eight hundred years of kings and revolutions and wars and this church survived two world wars and this is the reasons would come to grieve after. the attacks for instance the klan and this is where they come to who wanted to come to hold the easter celebrations this is the beginning of the holy week so this really cuts through the heart of people and the atmosphere here is really really subdued the whole city where not situated on is sort of blocked off by police but people are standing all around by the sides of the saying and here we are in the louis and nobody hardly speaks to nobody it really says a word and everybody just stares at the cathedral so there is really a feeling of said miss and everybody in the city is touched by this

event which nobody foresaw and everybody sort of says this is something that is really heartbreaking. but you know it is just after eleven pm in paris i mean are people still are still walking outside on the streets or do you see people or. have you been able to talk to people who are new you just arrived. people are everywhere and they're walking around but they're walking around very quietly and just looking on and you hardly i mean it's really very very subdued the whole atmosphere. call it and said overall because everybody sees this is an event that there's troy's something that was like precious to every french person really the heart of french culture and the symbol of the french state and the long history of this country and so this is really something that people

may come out to to look at it but not in the way of gardening at it but somehow participating in grieving for this huge old church that was really at the heart of their of their culture and not not only is. a religious symbol but also a symbol for for france in itself and french history the long run of french history you know you talk about this getting to the their coup or of the french and parisian identity yet we have reported many times notre dame was in dire need of rid of asians free being refurbished and there was a problem getting the money the funding for that. is is this a wake up call would you say to the city and the nation about the value of what is burning right now i mean it's we understand the sense of loss but you know go back

in time a couple of weeks a couple of months ago and you know they couldn't find the money to repair the cathedral. yet there were big fund drives friend for for civil e.u. going back several years and it seems that the very renovation that we're so urgently needed at this cathedral are no bringing it down because it started in the roof and there were works right around this buyer and at the spire which was the first piece of not too to fall down and to really burn like right falling down to the sky that was the first thing that happened this evening around seven thirty in the evening and from then on the fire has just been raging and we're still hoping and it's not still white quite clear yet whether it can be contained in the end or not because these sorts of fires are dangerous we heard a radio that there is so much material in there throughout the centuries that can

burn and yes because seadrill has been patched up it has been patched up in the nineteenth century and different sort of conservation methods were used to or something that we wouldn't use anymore today and so it is a hodgepodge of different centuries and different attempts offered to sort of stick materials together and it is a hugely difficult therefore for the firefighters to somehow contain contain this big fire that is just smoldering away and still burning away we can at the moment it seems to be a bit lower but then from time to time it just sort of goes up and it's sort of like reaching up to the sky and we see we can see the smoke white smoke rising from the body of off not in the background and so it means it doesn't mean that it wasn't love that it took so long to find the money for renovation but.