the heart of paris wind up in flames today as the world watched just after seven pm local time the renowned notre dame cathedral was engulfed in giant plumes of smoke as flames ravaged the medieval catholic church there is massive damage the spire has collapsed but firefighters say the towers have been saved tonight this symbol to the world of the city of lights it shines no more. this is the day. this is it. it's a thousand years of history it represents friends. i

feel like. it's destroying those of the justinian. i feel the cathedral has been snatched away from this. cultural heritage it's been hit today francis. to. our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all the around the world welcome we begin the day with what paris and the whole world lost today a massive fire gutted notre dame cathedral the seat this catholic church this medieval monument to french gothic architecture has been a fundamental part of paris's identity of the parisian soul for almost a millennium. president emanuel he visited the scene of the fire and he pledged

that france will rebuild notre dame. if you can get it it's the cathedral of old french citizens even if i have knitting here and its history is our history that he thought fit in. and then it burned. and believe it burns and i feel that sadness in a shock that so many of our fellow french citizens feeling now. i was the french president there we've got team coverage of the fire is standing by in paris is our correspondent barbara vevo and here in the studio with meat or news editors him and william glue crofts to all of you welcome let me start here with barbara earlier in the evening barbara we feared that all was lost but now there's cautious optimism that parts of notre dame will be saved. yes the

fed of the firefighters there was as you say cautiously optimistic and say said just a little while ago that he thought they had now been able to cordon chain the fire to a certain degree and even if you look at it you can see this behind us in hour ago you could see sort of bright red flames really shooting up to the sky from time to time and that has sort of quieted down a bit the fire has become less evident constantly firefighting firefighters are pouring water from big hoses from cranes into the into the structure and so the head of them said that he thought that the main vault the main building off to consider it could be safe what is of course lost is the spire and what is completely lost is the more than eight hundred year old roof structure all that really has burned some while ago we could her hear

a big noise like it. felt like a big the resumption falling in crashing into the inside of the kid the cathedral so we don't know yet what the damage will be inside particularly the windows the window rows the favors that is the big round window like a flower at the entrance of notes with them that they'd spec to medieval times we don't know whether in the heat the glass will have cracked whether it can be repaired what state it is in there is no telling yet the day to come tomorrow will show more and we will certainly see what the consider looks like inside but it seems that the worst could be averted that north would completely sort of fall down and break down and the structure would be irretrievably lost has been probably saved i mean that is at least one positive image negativity tonight.

you know i want to ask you you know we were all shocked and we sold. collapsing in real time but you're from we're going to talk to me a little bit about what this means to the identity of the forty well obviously french person on a poll like any other french are not about what's happening right now that. is really the heart of paris what many people don't know is that in the crypt you have to first parisian buried here so it's really the historic of their historic center of paris was which is touch and also it's highly symbolic not where moscow mosque was hold after the terrorist attack in november thirteenth two thousand and fifteen so it's also a whole symbol that's now it is no more and it happens during the during the holy week before easter so that's when. it's busiest so it's a whole

a symbol of paris which is suddenly collapsed and we so we we saw those pictures i was saying there might be a note of optimism but the whole structure collapsed and even the firefighters. where king. i mean with the water it caused damage to sure all of the artwork that was indicative of the first place and you talk about this sealing of but you know i didn't. get to the nation but we've been talking about this throughout the evening when it comes to funding to maintain it and also to refurbish it well there you know the importance was a different story yeah i mean this is been a constant struggle for the cathedral for the groups that have formed to support it to renovate it in raising money the french state has only put in. about two and

a half million dollars every year for just general upkeep that is not to speak to the real hard core renovations they require just to keep this structure standing after almost a thousand years the french state did say that they wanted to double that over the next decade to five million dollars a year but that's still pales in comparison to what the people trying to make at this renovation off the ground a twenty year project mind you a huge huge project they were estimating over the next several years one hundred eighty million dollars were needed to really do it's a huge difference which they were mostly trying to get private donations from around the world which is something now that a man on interesting enough has been asked is now asking for after this fire and what do you say to the french president tonight saying we will get the money well maybe it would have been maybe it would have been better to actually not cut funding in terms of cultural heritage in the first place which is not only in my grandma across politics but the politics which have been in place in the country for years now and now we paying the price of that it's not the first time because

he drew bends down it's been happening over the years that monuments of cultural heritage that suffer from bow to no menton ends has been subject to such hazards and now is one of the most symbolic places of france which is touched and yet the damage caused will take years to be. to be fixed and if if it can be fixed because even the stones of the cathedral suffer from that fire and. we find out once five hard times we'll be able to get into t.v. over again twentieth and the damage has been done. talking about the importance of . freedoms to europe but also looking at the fact that you know the money wasn't there maybe the willingness to pay for the upkeep was. there

is this a wake up call to the fore. it definitely is crowd funding has now started for the rebuilding off the cathedral and yes indeed it would have been wiser to spend more money in early years to sort of repair the place morris are only and sort of undo some of the patches and non made renovations that have been really state of the arts throughout the last decade the last real renovation took place in the nineteenth century but that was was really different means and not what we could do could have done today so there was of course things when missed but also there are aspects i'm i talked a little while here to an inhabitant of paris who lives close here on the on the waterfront on the sun louis and he said that it took about forty five minutes for

firefighters to arrive in any sufficient number because traffic was so clogged up here in the center and then some areas have been pedestrian eyes then so it took quite a while for them to get here and he thought he was watching the fire from the window of his apartment and he thought that could they have gotten there like half an hour earlier things wouldn't have gotten so out of hand but after like almost an hour. the fire had really taken hold and was sort of burning away and afterwards there was this fierce struggle for hours where the outcome was not quite clear and only now in the last hour about firefighters think that they have sort of gotten the upper hand and they could can contain the fire so damage has been done on different fronts through. the circumstances of course here and as we mentioned of course yes there was a dialect of public funding and yes indeed also other. cultural monuments in france

suffer from the lack of public funding and so it is something that we see all over the country rethink political research probably needs to come and it's a good point you bring up too barbara when we look at the pictures there of the spire in flames forty five minutes response time yeah that is going to draw a lot of criticism well it took the flames about an hour to turn the notre dame's wooden frame and its towering spire recognize the world over into smoldering embers and their actions take a look at. 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 know saddam as 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 not crawl into 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. we talked about the shock in france we talked a little bit about international reaction to what happened today i mean quite the same shock all around the world i mean world leaders have been calling in and making statements on twitter and elsewhere for the last several hours the vatican of course its website does a catholic church expressing extreme sadness and shock. i think i got america to hear the chancellor of germany really really put put put it to the point the point there by saying this is not just a french symbol or a parisian symbol or even

a catholic said well this is really a symbol of europe and i'm sure that most people when they think of europe is one of the first images they have from europe so really i mean all around the world people just expressing their shock and you know with so many the most visited site in the most visited city this is something that whether you're catholic or not french or not there's something everybody kind of has a memory about an experience where there are a wish to go if they haven't been so this is really really touching people all around the world and look a lot of people look at. you can see that it is a catholic cathedral in a lot of french in france women may not see that either i think smooth talking earlier this evening maybe six percent of the french attend church regularly it's a very secular society or the religiosity is very low so how does new. play into this idea that the again that you're talking about if you're not going to church anyway. like i found earlier it's. the heart of paris and it's

also in the heart of its people because it is it has this symbolic of being the historic. center of the capital is that what you say is that what you see you do is do you see a church or do you see an icon i thin i can i see a heritage a part of my heritage and when i switch on the television there on that i saw what was happening i just couldn't breathe. because it is something we grow up ways not he is a part of our heritage and seeing it complete it is tried it doesn't matter whether you are believe or are not whether you acknowledge stick. doesn't matter you just really shocked because it's one of the symbol of power is i mean equal to the tower if that's where to collapse i mean everyone that the word out would really be shocked and is exactly the same was not so dominant so so being very present in french literature of course was not put on the body from victoria go it also holds

so many invaluable artworks which are probably lost because even if they didn't suffer from the flames they have suffered two to water that was true to this is trying to frame your views the hunchback of notre dame disney made a film for kids it's known all over the world let me ask you to pick up on that you're there what have you been hearing people say that the good seadrill in this damage what does it mean to them i doubt they've been talking a lot about losing a place of worship. no. national symbol really it is the sort of symbol for the long gave a tee off on the french nation really state that has been sort of together and that was not invaded or that partly invaded but that was not really overrun on torn to pieces like other countries in europe that's been very stable in itself and for for

around a thousand years so it is it is a living symbol for things going on for life continuing for the stability off of the nation a cultural heritage we've heard all this but on the bridge here where there stood the crowds of people sort of watching the spectacle from time to time a group is starting to seeing christian hymns and so there is some of the people some of these people who do still believe in who still have the religious connection but yes it is really the heart of france that is standing in flames here behind us and if you think it's a wake up call for the french how will that play into the upcoming european parliamentary elections is this going to be a boost for the european project. not particularly it seems like a bad omen we don't really know what we're for and it is particularly something

that is not going to flavor mark wrong because it's not his fault this is happening i mean he wasn't the one to i mean the lack of money that as we've heard goes back for decades that this french state has really sort of neglected this piece of cultural heritage but for prismatic wrong it seems even people who don't believe in like black cats crossing you know way it somehow seems a sign in ominous sign it is something really bad happening and in strikes at the heart of france and so it sets a negative mood it will be very difficult to overcome the scent return to a sense of optimism and looking to the future after this is this really is strike two against his presidency i mean that's what you feel emotionally when you're out here tonight all right barbara stand by as we've been saying throughout the evening for the people of france notre dame is much more than

a cathedral it's part of the idea that the as a nation hears more. part of what we are an essential part of paris is in peril that was the reaction of many in france is the fire took hold they looked on incredulous as the flames engulfed notre dame. for the french people not to dom is more than just a cathedral it's the heart of paris a landmark alongside the eiffel tower a magnet for millions of visitors a year not tradin stands on the internet city in the middle of the river saying it's france's most famous catholic monument dating right back to the middle ages. suring the french revolution many of the cathedrals treasures were plundered in a chino for it was the venue for napoleon's coronation as the emperor of france. hundred thirty one so the publication of the famous novel the hunchback of notre dame by victor hugo it was a huge success and brought the cathedral new attention. now in twenty nineteen the

unthinkable has happened the flames consuming not to dumb cathedral taking with them centuries of history. yeah so much history and tonight it's an obvious tragedy but i want to disagree with bob i want to say that there's actually a silver lining here this is going to have a positive outcome for your takers on. the woman who can vote actually i thought i did see how. you know a trade is. it is positive i told her i say that to me it's a pretty bad omen for a man and i call of course it's not his fault at a cathedral. this would be i mean yeah you could draw some sympathy on france but it won't change people's minds in terms of both south. i mean it takes it to take another man you are around the well of

a brick obama's chief of staff years and years ago in a financial crisis never let an opportunity go to waste yes i think it's much too soon to be talking political fallout we have no idea where this is going to lead but there could be a silver lining like you say that this tragedy do tend to have people rally around them and refocus on issues that maybe have fallen by the wayside over the years and maybe this will be a call for more public funding for cultural heritage maybe there will be some knock on effect in the european elections we don't know that yet but there could be a silver lining these kinds of events really do redefine you know a society where it's at the moment and and i think we're you know we'll have to see i mean there will definitely be questions as to how can we in two thousand and nineteen use such a piece cultural heritage that so quickly why it was the response to it's so slow already in the exactly there will be questions. that might play

a part in the ever decreasing popularity of him and him i call. like william said it's a bit too early to draw conclusions in terms of. elections let me as barbara get about this response time barbara in other countries if we were dealing with this situation i could imagine the you know the lawyers of the attorneys they would be all over this forty five minutes to respond to a fire in the middle of the city is just odd except about. what do you see as the immediate fallout you know beginning tomorrow assuming that the calls was the realization work. that the worst is behind us. that is what the prosecutor of paris is now sort of pursuing the idea that this was . caused by negligence really during the building works that's the latest we heard from that front it is going to be particularly difficult for the mayor of paris on

he dollar because she is the one who is ultimately responsible for you know how quickly the fire services can move through the city how traffic is sort of being handled in catastrophes like this and obviously they didn't seem to be and that was something that i found remarkable when getting to this place they didn't really seem to have been an emergency plan in place for something like this happening this was like this because seadrill has stood their foes for so long you know more than eight hundred years and has survived wars and kings and revolutions and changes of society and the two world wars in the last century and now something something better you know like works in the in the under the roof sort of are bringing it down and that seems that seems particularly terrible because it's something that could have been avoided so many questions will be asked of this properly done

wasn't supervised what is the city done to avoid prevent something like that so it's going to take some days and yes the mayor from paris is going to have a very hard time. we're talking about negligence possibly in the renovation work but also neglect if there really was an emergency plan for trucks you know that can't take forty five minutes in the city that's i'm a bit surprised us did that there would be no plans. whatsoever because there have been especially ever since the terrorist attack the hound been a number of exercises evacuation exercise off the tower all of our. not on the body so i would be surprised if there were no plan implemented told to be a long holiday because it's the easter we. shouldn't be doesn't play a part in times of emergency response right so we say that yes i can i can

also i can also guess that's because you need such a big. trucks to fight such a fire and power is being such a media bias a tape to its core maybe it was difficult for the firefighters to come to that point but i would assume they have a plan for such a situation well we will soon hopefully find out exactly what happens to michelle's. as always thank you very much the day is always done the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter. or follow me t.v. to for you to use the hash tag the day we're going to leave you now with images of that fire. and remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another.

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